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A   POPULAR 


HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA, 


From  the  Earliest  Times  to  1880. 


BY 


ALFRED    RAMBAUD, 


CHIEF  OF   THE  CABINET   OF   THE   MINISTER   OF    PUBLIC    INSTRUCTION    AND   FINE   ARTS,    AT   PARIS  \ 

CORRESPONDING   MEMBER   OF   THE   ACADEMY   OF  SCIENCES  OF 

ST.    PETERSBURG  ;   ETC,   ETC. 

THIS   WORK  HAS  BEEN  CROWNED  BY  THE  FRENCH  ACADEMY. 


TRANSLATED   BY   L,  B.  LANG. 
EDITED  AND   ENLARGED   BY   NATHAN   HASKELL  DOLE. 

INCLUDING 

A  HISTORY  OF  THE  TURKO-RUSSIAN  WAR  OF   1877-78, 

FROM  THE  BEST  AUTHORITIES,  BY  THE  EDITOR. 
IN   THREE   VOLUMES. 

VOL.  I. 

FULLY    ILLUSTRATED 

WITH    WOOD-CUTS,    STEEL.    PLATES,    AND    MAPS    AND    PLANS. 


BOSTON: 
DANA   ESTES  AND  CHARLES  E.  LAURIAT, 

301  WASHINGTON  STREET. 
I880. 


COPYRIGHT,  1879. 
BY    ESTES    AND    LAURIAT. 


II     E.MASS.}. 

~ 


College 
Library 


41 


PREFACE. 


THE  field  of  Russian  history  has  not  hitherto  seemed  to 
offer  great  attraction  for  the  student.  This  is  partly  due  to 
the  lack  of  interesting  and  reliable  works  upon  the  subject. 
It  is  now  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  since  any  history  of 
Russia  pretending  to  completeness  has  appeared  in  the  English 
language,  and  Kelly's  Compilation  in  the  Bohn  Collection, 
published  immediately  after  the  Crimean  War,  is  full  of 
prejudice  and  error.  The  abundance  of  materials  which  throw 
new  light  on  the  development  of  the  Empire,  the  labors  of  the 
faithful  and  conscientious  modern  Russian  historians,  have  been 
almost  entirely  neglected.  It  has  not  been  felt  to  be  essential 
for  the  well-educated  man  to  add  to  his  other  accomplishments 
a  complete  knowledge  of  Russian  history,  and  a  few  items  of 
general  information  have  completely  satisfied  him.  The  name 
of  Ivan  the  Terrible  has  seemed  to  him  typical  of  the  early 
Tsars,  and  by  its  very  sound  conjured  up  a  phantom  of  some- 
thing indefinitely  cruel  and  barbaric.  An  acquaintance  with 
Peter  the  Great,  "  the  giant,  the  wonder-worker,"  he  has  per- 
haps made  through  the  medium  of  Voltaire.  But  however 
brilliant  Voltaire's  style  may  be,  it  does  not  suffice  to  cover  its 
superficial  and  untrustworthy  character.  And  the  study  of 
modern  European  history  has  led  to  more  or  less  familiarity 
with  Napoleon's  campaign  against  Moscow  and  the  details  of 
the  Crimean  War.  But  the  prominence  of  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tion and  the  portentous  growth  in  all  directions  of  the  vast 


IV  PREFACE. 

Empire  of  the  Russias,  threatening  the  Turk  in  his  sunny 
home  on  the  Bosphorus,  the  Englishman  in  his  Indian  do- 
main, the  Celestial  in  his  flowery  kingdom,  have  attracted 
universal  attention,  and  a  knowledge  of  general  Russian  his- 
tory is  almost  indispensable  if  one  would  understand  the  com- 
plicated relations  of  Russia  with  Europe.  The  influence  of 
the  Tatar  invasion,  the  growth  of  autocracy,  the  reforms 
effected  by  Peter  the  Great  and  his  successors,  the  policy  of 
emancipation  and  of  the  protection  of  Christians  in  Turkish 
dominions,  must  all  be  considered,  not  as  isolated  facts,  but  as 
legitimate  consequences  of  more  or  less  patent  causes. 

It  has  not  been  easy  to  find  authentic  material  in  anything 
but  the  Russian  language  for  such  study.  Mr.  Ralston  has 
published  some  excellent  lectures  on  early  times,  and  M.  Pros- 
per Merimee  wrote  a  thorough  monograph  on  the  Epoch  of 
the  False  Dmitri ;  various  sketches  of  Russian  history  can  be 
found  in  travels  and  other  works  on  Russia ;  the  industrious 
seeker  might  be  rewarded  by  studying  the  ponderous  volumes 
of  Levesque  or  Esneaux,  or  Bernhardi's  "  Geschichte  Russ- 
lands " ;  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there  has  hitherto  existed  no 
trustworthy,  unprejudiced,  and  complete  history  of  Russia  in 
either  English  or  French. 

When  the  "Histoire  de  la  Russie,"  by  M.  Alfred  Rambaud, 
made  its  appearance,  it  was  immediately  welcomed  by  the 
press  of  both  countries  with  the  most  flattering  approval,  and 
it  was  also  crowned  by  the  French  Academy.  The  London 

Athenaeum  says  of  it :  — 

« 

"  We  have  the  '  Histoire  de  la  Russie/  by  M.  Alfred  Rambaud,  \vho, 
by  his  ' Russie  E pique*  and  other  publications,  has  already  shown  him- 
self a  competent  scholar.  In  this  book  we  have  the  results  of  the 
researches  of  all  the  latest  Russian  historiographers  summarized ;  he 
has  especially  laid  under  contribution  the  voluminous  labors  of  Solovief 
and  Oustrialov,  and  the  less  ambitious  productions  of  Kostomarov  and 
Bestuzhev-Rioumin. 


PREFACE.  V 

"  The  various  theories  on  the  origin  of  Rurik  and  his  companions  are 
clearly  set  forth,  and  a  wise  discretion  is  exercised  in  abridging  the 
tedious  story  of  the  struggles  between  the  early  Russian  principalities. 
Any  one  who  has  read  the  classical  Slavonic  histories  on  those  times 
must  remember  how  hopelessly  dreary  they  seem.  The  chapters  on  the 
Republics  of  Novgorod,  Pskov,  and  Viatka,  and  the  Lithuanian  Princi- 
pality are  very  well  done;  without  an  examination  of  their  relations 
to  early  Russian  history  it  becomes  unintelligible,  and  probably  few 
Western  students  have  realized  how  slender  was  the  tie  which  bound 
the  latter  country  to  Poland.  The  culmination  at  Moscow  of  a  cen- 
tralized despotism  is  fully  brought  out,  and  the  reign  of  Ivan  the  Terri- 
ble is  necessarily  made  a  very  prominent  feature  in  the  book.  At  this 
point  Russian  history  becomes  especially  interesting  to  Englishmen, 
owing  to  our  commercial  dealings  with  the  tyrant,  and  monographs 
on  the  subject  have  been  written  by  Kostomarov  and  Youri  Tolstoi. 
The  pages  of  Hakluyt  teem  with  quaint  stories  of  the  adventures  of  our 
enterprising  countrymen.  As  M.  Rambaud  is  quite  familiar  with  Rus- 
sian literature,  he  occasionally  stops  in  the  course  of  his  narrative  to 
summarize  its  progress,  and  illustrates  historical  events  by  reference  to 
contemporary  bylinas*  .... 

"A  great  deal  of  new  light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  period  of 
Catherine's  reign  ;  so  wide  and  careful  has  been  M.  Rambaud's  reading, 
that  he  has  laid  under  contribution  the  valuable  memoirs  and  other 

papers  recently  published  in  the  Russian  reviews  and  journals 

The  narrative  is  carried  down  to  the  latest  period 

"A  mass  of  useful  information  is  condensed  in  this  work;  it  is 
beyond  question  the  best  complete  history  of  Russia  which  has  appeared 
in  the  West.  In  the  author's  power  of  seizing  upon  salient  traits  of 
character,  and  selecting  picturesque  incidents,  the  book  reminds  us  very 
much  of  Mr.  Green's  English  History.  We  will  venture  to  prophesy 
that  it  will  become  the  work  on  the  subject  for  readers  in  our  part  of 
Europe. 

"It  reflects  great  credit  upon  its  author,  and  well  deserves  to  be 
studied  by  all  who  care  to  instruct  themselves  in  Russian  history." 

The  Saturday  Review  declares  that  "  M.  Rambaud  is  never 
too  enthusiastic  to  be  fair,"  and  goes  on  to  say  :  "  The  value 

*  Historical  Ballads. 


vi  PREFACE. 

of  a  work  like  this,  which  gives  us  in  an  unbroken  chain 
events  from  the  time  of  legend  and  almost  of  myth,  when  truth 
is  hard  to  be  reached,  from  the  scanty  amount  of  information, 
to  the  present  day,  when  multiplicity  of  sources  makes  truth 
equally  obscure,  cannot  be  overrated." 

Mr.  Ralston,  who  is  considered  one  of  the  most  thorough 
Russian  scholars  in  England,  adds  his  testimony  as  follows : 
"  We  gladly  recognize  in  the  present  volume  a  trustworthy 
history  of  Russia,  and  one  based  not  merely  on  what  foreigners 
have  written  about  it,  but  compiled  by  a  scholar  who  is  com- 
petent to  deal  with  the  works  which  Russian  historians  have 
recently  produced.  M.  Rambaud  has  long  been  known  as  a 
sound  authority  upon  all  subjects  connected  with  the  great 
Empire  of  which  he  has  now  written  the  history."  And 
finally,  we  select  from  many  other  flattering  notices  the  opinion 
of  Turgenief,  the  great  Russian  novelist,  that,  "  in  spite  of 
some  minor  faults,  this  is  far  superior  to  any  other  history 
accessible  to  Western  Europe." 

M.  Rambaud,  though  a  comparatively  young  man,  having 
been  born  in  eighteen  hundred  and  forty-two,  has  proved  him- 
self worthy  to  treat  the  difficult  subject  of  Russian  history  by 
his  other  historical  works,  by  his  frequent  visits  to  Russia,  and 
his  knowledge  of  the  Russian  language  and  literature. 

His  development  of  the  early  and  complicated  periods  of 
the  appanaged  princes  could  hardly  be  excelled  ;  it  is  when 
he  reaches  modern  times  that  excessive  condensation  sometimes 
injures  the  style  of  the  book,  and  in  the  American  edition  the 
translation  has  been  supplemented  with  frequent  additions 
taken  from  the  original  works  of  Ustrialof  and  Solovief  when- 
ever perspicuity  and  interest  could  be  thus  served.  Hermann 
and  Von  Bernhardi  have  also  been  found  useful  in  expanding 
or  explaining  incomplete  or  doubtful  passages. 

The  American  edition  also  includes  a  continuation  of  the 
history  through  the  last  war  with  Turkey  and  the  relations 


PREFACE.  vii 

with  Afghanistan  and  the  East.  Lack  of  historical  perspective 
makes  it  difficult  satisfactorily  to  deal  with  events  so  near  at 
hand,  but  it  is  hoped  that  accuracy  and  fairness  will  be  found 
in  the  treatment  of  the  events  of  the  last  few  years.  The  best 
possible  authorities  have  been  studied,  arid  as  information 
has  already  been  largely  collected  and  classified,  the  danger 
of  erroneous  judgment  and  important  omissions  is  greatly 
lessened. 

Throughout  the  whole  work  the  Russian  words  scattered 
freely  in  the  original  French  have  been  translated,  so  far  as 
was  practicable,  and  the  simplest  possible  mode  of  spelling 
both  Polish  and  Russian  names  has  been  adopted,  so  as  to 
facilitate  the  proper  pronunciation.  In  many  cases  Russian 
plurals  have  been  substituted  for  English  plurals  of  Russian 
words,  and  in  accordance  with  the  best  modern  English  usage 
the  letters  ui  have  taken  the  place  of  the  meaningless  y  in  such 
words  as  Kruilof.  The  terminations  vitch  and  vna  indicate 
the  relation  of  son  and  daughter  :  Peter  Alexievitch,  Peter  son 
of  Alexis ;  Elisabeth  Petrovna,  Elisabeth  daughter  of  Peter. 

The  Russian  calendar  has  not  adopted  the  Gregorian  re- 
form ;  for  every  date,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  indicate 
whether  it  is  after  the  old  or  new  style.  Eor  important  dates, 
both  styles  are  generally  given.  In  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury the  Russian  style  is  eleven  days  behind  ours ;  in  the 
nineteenth  century  it  is  twelve  days.  Thus  the  date  of  the 
death  of  Catherine  the  Second  is  given  as  the  sixth  or 
seventeenth  of  November,  —  a  difference  of  eleven  days,  since 
the  event  happened  in  the  eighteenth  century.  But  we  say 
the  revolution  of  the  fourteenth  or  twenty-sixth  of  December, 
eighteen  hundred  and  twenty-five,  as  we  are  speaking  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

The  greatest  pains  have  been  taken  to  render  the  text  free 
from  errors,  a  complete  index  has  been  prepared,  illustrations 
have  been  freely  used,  and  it  is  hoped  that  it  will  prove  to  be 
in  reality  a  Popular  History  of  Russia. 


LIST  OF  STEEL  PLATES  AND  MAPS. 

VOL.  I. 

RURIK         ............        Frontispiece. 

ETHNOGRAPHICAL  MAP  OP  RUSSIA  IN  THE  NINTH  CENTURY  .        .        .  17 

VLADIMIR 77 

IAROSLAP 82 

ALEXANDER  NEVSKI s        .  159 

DMITRI  DONSKOI 201 

IVAN  THE  GREAT 216 

IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE       .         .         . 250 

MIKHAIL  THE  FIRST 346 

MAP  OF  THE  FORMATION  OP  THE  TSARATE  OF  MUSCOVY       ....  857 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

VOL  I. 

KIRGHIZ  TATARS 20 

RUSSIAN  VILLAGE  .                 23 

KALMUCK  TATARS 29 

THE  HERMITAGE 34 

GREAT  RUSSIAN  TYPES 46 

TATAR  SHAMANS 52 

VIEW  OF  KIEF 66 

CASTLE  ON  THE  DANUBE 72 

ANCIENT  GATE  IN  KOLOSTAR ' 72 

RUSSIAN  CHURCHES 95 

SEAL  OF  NOVGOROD 128 

TYPES  OF  NOVGOROD 135 

MONASTERY  OF  IURIEF 137 

REVEL 145 

VIEW  OF  RIGA  . 161 

COSSACK  CAVALRY 169 

LITHUANIANS 174 

KHEML  OF  Moscow        ........  187 

MONASTERY  OF  ST.  SERGIUS  AT  TROITSA 194 

METROPOLITAN  OF  Moscow        . 214 

VIEW  OF  NOVGOROD       .........  221 

VIEW  OF  KAZAN         ........  226 

ARMS  OF  RUSSIA 232 

MOUNT  ATHOS   .........  242 

THE  RED  PLACE 266 

SIBERIA      ......  277 

BOSNIAN  MERCHANT 282 

CATHEDRAL  OF  SAINT  SOPHIA  AT  NOVGOROD 288 

PALACE  OF  FACETS 291 


x  LIST  OF  ILLUSTEATIONS. 

THE  FUNERAL  OF  A  RUSSIAN  PEASANT 292 

CHURCH  MARRIAGE  CEREMONY 302 

RED  GATE 305 

307 


SAINT  NICHOLAS  GATE 

CHURCH  OF  VASILI  THE  BLESSED 309 

TSAR  KOLOKOL 310 

DIEVITCHI  MONASTERY 318 

VIEW  IN  WOODS 344 

FORTRESS  OF  SCHLUSSELBURG 349 

CLERGY  OF  THE  RUSSIAN  CHURCH 355 

WOMEN  OF  PSKOF 374 

NEW  JERUSALEM  MONASTERY         .        .        .        .        .        .  392 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER  I. 

GEOGRAPHY   OF  RUSSIA. 

Eastern  and  Western  Europe  compared :  Seas,  Mountains,  Climate.  —  Russian  Rivers 

and  History.  —  The  Four  Zones  :  Geographical  Unity  of  Russia  .      .        .        17-31 

CHAPTER  II. 

ETHNOGRAPHY   OF   RUSSIA. 

Greek  Colonies  and  the  Scythia  of  Herodotus.  —  The  Russian  Slavs  of  Nestor.  — 
Lithuanian,  Finnish,  and  Turkish  Hordes  in  the  Ninth  Century.  —  Division 
of  the  Russians  proper  into  three  Branches.  —  How  Russia  was  colonized  .  32-50 

CHAPTER  III. 

PRIMITIVE   RUSSIA:    THE   SLAVS. 

Religion  of  the  Slavs.  —  Funeral  Rites.  —  Domestic  and  Political  Customs :  the 
Family  ;  the  Mir,  or  Commune ;  the  Volost,  or  Canton ;  the  Tribe.  —  Towns.  — 
Industry.  —  Agriculture 51-59 

CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    VARIAGI :    FORMATION    OF   RUSSIA ;    THE    FIRST    EXPEDITIONS    AGAINST 
CONSTANTINOPLE. 

The  Northmen  in  Russia:  Origin  and  Customs  of  the  Variagi. — The  First  Russian 
Princes:  Rurik,  Oleg,  Igor.  —  Expeditions  against  Constantinople.  —  Olga  : 
Christianity  in  Russia.  —  Sviatoslaf.  —  The  Danube  disputed  between  the  Rus- 
sians and  Greeks ,60-76 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE    CLOVIS   AND    CHARLEMAGNE    OF   THE    RUSSIANS,    SAINT   TLADIMIR   AND    IARO- 

SLAF    THE    GREAT. 
972-1054. 

Vladimir  (972- 1015).  —  Conversion  of  the  Russians.  —  laroslaf  the  Great  (1016- 
1054).  — Union  of  Russia.  —  Splendor  of  Kief.  —  Variag-Russian  Society  at 
the  Time  of  laroslaf.  —  Progress  of  Christianity.  —  Social,  Political,  Literary, 
and  Artistic  Results '77-95 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

RUSSIA  DIVIDED   INTO   PRINCIPALITIES.  —  SUPREMACY  AND   FALL   OF   KIEF. 

1064.  -1160. 

Distribution  of  Russia  into  Principalities.  —  Unity  in  Division.  —  The  Successors  of 
laroslaf  the  Great.  —  Wars  about  the  Right  of  Headship  of  the  Royal  Family, 
and  the  Throne  of  Kief.  —  Vladimir  Monomakh.  —  Wars  between  the  Heirs  of 
Vladimir  Monomakh.  —  Fall  of  Kief  .......  96-112 

CHAPTER  VII. 

RUSSIA  AFTER  THE   FALL   OF   KIEF.  —  POWER  OF   SUZDAL  AND   GALLICIA. 

1169-1264. 

Andrei  Bogoliubski  of  Suzdal  (1157  -  1174)  and  the  First  Attempt  at  Autocracy.  —  luri 
the  Second  (1212  -  1238).  —  Wars  with  Novgorod.  —  Battle  of  Lipetsk  (1216).  — 
Foundation  of  Nijni-Novgorod  (1220).  —  Roman  (1188-1205)  and  his  Son  Daniel 
(1205  -  1264)  in  Gallicia  .........  113-126 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   RUSSIAN   REPUBLICS  :    NOVGOROD,    PSKOF,   AND  VIATKA. 
Until  1224. 

Novgorod  the  Great.  —  Struggles  with  the  Princes.  —  Novgorodian  Institutions.  — 

Commerce.  —  The  National  Church.  —  Literature.  —  Pskof  and  Viatka     .     127-142 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   LIVONIAN   KNIGHTS.  —  CONQUEST    OF    THE    BALTIC    PROVINCES   BY   THE 

GERMANS. 
1187-1237. 

Conversion  of  Livonia.  —  Rise  of  the  Livonian  Knights.  —  Union  with  the  Teutonic 

Knights       ............     143-148 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   TATAR   MONGOLS.  —  ENSLAVEMENT   OF  RUSSIA. 
-  1264. 


Origin  and  Customs  of  the  Mongols.  —  Battles  of  the  Kalka,  of  Riazan,  of  Kolomna, 
and  of  the  Sit.  —  Conquest  of  Russia.  —  Alexander  Nevski.  —  The  Mongol  Yoke. 
—  Influence  of  the  Tatars  on  Russian  Development  ....  149-173 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    LITHUANIANS:    CONQUEST  OF   WESTERN   RUSSI 
1240-1430. 

The  Lithuanians.—  Conquests  of  Mindvog  (1240-1263),  of  Gedimin  (1315-1340), 
and  of  Olgerd  (1345-1377).  —  lagello.  —  Union  of  Lithuania  with  Poland 
(1386).  —  The  Grand  Prince  Vitovt  (1392-1430).  —  Battles  of  the  Vorskla 
(1399)  and  of  Tannenberg  (1410)  .......  174-184 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    GRAND   PRINCES   OF   MOSCOW  :     ORGANIZATION   OF  EASTERN  RUSSIA. 
13O3-1462. 

Origin  of  Moscow.  —  Daniel.  —  luri  Danielovitch  (1303-1325)  and  Ivan  Kalita 
(1328-  1341).  —  Contest  with  the  House  of  Tver.  —  Simeon  the  Proud  and  Ivan 
the  Debonair  (1341  -  1359).  —  Dmitri  Donskoi  (1363  -  1389).  —  Battle  of  Kuli- 
kovo.  —  Vasili  Dmitrie'vitch  and  Vasili  the  Blind  (1389  - 1462)  .  .  185  -  215 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

IVAN  THE   GREAT,    THE   AUTHOR   OF   RUSSIAN   UNITY. 
1462- 15O5. 

Submission  of  Novgorod.  —  Reunion  of  Tver,  Rostof,  and  laroslavl.  —  "Wars  with 
the  Great  Horde  and  Kazan.  —  End  of  the  Tatar  Yoke.  — Wars  with  Lithuania.  — 
Western  Russia  as  far  as  the  Soja  reconquered.  —  Marriage  with  Sophia  Palaco- 
logus.  —  Greeks  and  Italians  at  the  Court  of  Moscow  ....  216-234 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

VASILI     IVANOVITCH. 
15O5-1533. 

Reunion  of  Pskof,  Riazan,  and  Novgorod-Severski. — Wars  with  Lithuania.  —  Acqni- 
•   sition   of  Smolensk.  —  Wars   with   the   Tatars.  —  Diplomatic   Relations   with 
Europe 235-243 

CHAPTER  XV. 

IVAN    THE    TERRIBLE. 
1533-1584. 

Minority  of  Ivan  the  Fourth. —  He  takes  the  Title  of  Tsar  (1547).  —  Conquest  of 
Kazan  (1552)  and  of  Astrakhan  (1554).  —  Contests  with  the  Livonian  Order, 
Poland,  the  Tatars,  Sweden,  and  the  Russian  Aristocracy.  —  The  English  in 
Russia.  —  Conquest  of  Siberia 244  -  280 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

MUSCOVITE    RUSSIA    ANT)   THE   RENAISSANCE. 
1533-1584. 

The  Muscovite  Government.  —  The  Kin  and  the  Men  of  the  Tsar.  —  The  Prikazui.  — 
Rural  Classes.  —  Citizens.  —  Commerce.  —  Domestic  Slavery.  —  Seclusion  of 
Women.  —  The  Renaissance:  Literature,  Popular  Songs,  and  Cathedrals. — 
Moscow  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 281-310 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE     SUCCESSORS    OF    IVAN     THE     TERRIBLE  :     FEODOR     IVANOVITCU     AND     BORIS 

GO  DUN  OF. 
1584-1605. 

Feodor  Ivanovitch  (1534-1598).  —  The  Peasant  attached  to  the  Glebe.  —  The  Patri- 
archate. —  Boris  Godunof  (1598  -  1605).  —  Appearance  of  the  False  Dmitri  311  -  326 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE   TIME   OF   THE   TROUBLES. 
16O5-1613. 

Murder  of  the  False  Dmitri.  —  Vasili  Shuiski. —  The  Brigand  of  Tushino.  —  Vladislaa 
of  Poland.  —  The  Poles  at  the  Kreml.  — National  Rising.  —  Minin  and  Pojarski. 
—  Election  of  Mikhail  Romanof 327-344 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   ROMANOFS:    MIKHAIL  FEODOROVITCH   AND   THE    PATRIARCH   PHILARET. 

1613-1645. 

Restorative  Measures. — End  of  the  Polish  War.  —  Relations  with  Europe. — The 

States-General 345-356 

CHAPTER  XX. 

WESTERN   RUSSIA   IN   THE    SEVENTEENTH    CENTURY. 
1569-1645. 

The  Political  Union  of  Lublin  (1569)  and  the  Religious  Union  (1595).  —  Complaints 

of  White  Russia.  —  Risings  in  Little  Russia 357-369 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

ALEXIS   MIKHAILOVITCH   AND   HIS   SON   FEODOR. 
1645-1682. 

Early  Years   of  Alexis.  —  Seditions.  —  Khmelnitsld.  —  Conquest   of  Smolensk   and 
Eastern  Ukraina. — Stenko   Razin.  —  Ecclesiastical  Reforms  of  Nikon.  —  The 
.      Precursors  of  Peter  the  Great.  —  Reign  of  Feodor  Alexie'vitch  (1676  - 1682)     370  -  400 


NOTE. 

THE  perfect  simplicity  of  the  metric  system  of  weights  and  measures, 
and  its  immense  superiority  to  all  others,  make  its  universal  adoption  a 
mere  matter  of  time.  It  is  already  used  Jby  upwards  of  twenty-seven 
different  nations,  and  in  the  majority  the  system  is  obligatory.  It  is 
legalized  in  the  United  States,  and  the  action  of  Congress,  of  the  various 
State  legislatures,  of  national  and  State  scientific  and  educational  asso- 
ciations, is  so  rapidly  spreading  a  knowledge  of  it  that  even  in  the 
opinion  of  its  few  opponents  its  adoption  is  inevitable.  Consequently 
in  the  American  edition  of  the  History  of  Russia  the  metric  system  has 
been  retained,  and  a  simple  table  of  equivalents  is  added. 

TABLE  OF  THE  METRIC  SYSTEM  OF  WEIGHTS  AND  MEASURES. 

The  unit  of  length  is  the  meter,  a  measure  equivalent  to  one  ten-millionth  part 
of  the  distance  from  the  pole  to  the  equator. 

1  meter  =  10  decimeters  =  100  centimeters  =  1000  mJlimeters  =  39.37  inches. 
1000  meters  =  1  kilometer  =  3280  feet  10  inches,  or  three  fifths  of  a  mile. 

The  unit  of  capacity  is  the  liter,  which  is  the  space  included  in  a  cubic  decimeter. 
1  liter  =  10  deciliters  =  100  centiliters  =  1000  milliliters  =  1.06  U.  S.  quarts. 
10  liters  =  1  dekaliter,  10  dekaliters  =  1  hektoliter  =  about  3  bushels. 

The  unit  of  weight  is  the  gram,  which  is  the  weight  of  one  cubic  centimeter  of 
distilled  water  at  the  freezing  point. 

1  gram  =  10  decigrams  =  100  centigrams  =  1000  milligrams  =  15. 4  grains. 
1  kilogram  or  kilo  =  1000  grams  =  a  liter  of  water  =  2.205  Ibs.  avoirdupois. 
1  sq.  meter  =  10.75  sq.  ft.     1  sq.  kilometer  =  0.39  sq.  mile. 

For  ordinary  purposes  it  may  be  remembered  that  the  meter,  liter,  and 
half-kilo  are  one  tenth  larger  than  the  yard,  quart,  and  pound  respec- 
tively, and  that  thirty  centimeters  make  a  foot  and  thirty  grams  a 
pound. 

The  Russian  ruble  =  100  kopeks  =  from  $0.70  to  $0.80. 

The  value  of  the  ruble  depends  upon  whether  it  is  coin  or  paper. 

The  Russian  verst  =  1067  meters,  or  about  two  thirds  of  a  mile. 

The  Russian  pud  =  16.26  kilos  =  36.08  Ibs. 

NATHAN   HASKELL  DOLE. 
BOSTON,  May  1,  1879. 


t  ft  12          16        20       -II        2«       32       36       W>       ti        M        52        56         60        64         66  7>  76 


-Kam  ba  nrff  fnpu  far  History  f>/~Jrtisstet 


HISTORY    OF   RUSSIA. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GEOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA. 

EASTERN  AND  WESTERN  EUROPE  COMPARED  :  SEAS,  MOUNTAINS,  CLI- 
MATE. —  RUSSIAN  EIVERS  AND  HISTORY.  —  THE  FOUR  ZONES  : 
GEOGRAPHICAL  UNITY  OF  EUSSIA. 


EASTERN   AND    WESTERN   EUROPE    COMPARED:    SEAS, 
MOUNTAINS,  CLIMATE. 


UROPE  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  unequal  parts. 
iJ  If  we  allow  ten  million  square  kilometers  to  the  whole 
of  Europe,  only  four  million  five  hundred  thousand  belong 
to  the  western,  five  million  five  hundred  thousand  to  the 
eastern  part.  The  former  division  is  shared  among  all  the 
monarchies  and  republics  of  Europe,  with  the  exception  of 
Russia  ;  the  latter  is  united  under  the  Russian  sceptre.  Na- 
ture, no  less  than  policy  and  religion,  has  established  a  strong 
opposition  between  the  two  regions,  between  Eastern  and 
Western  Europe. 

The  shores  of  the  latter  are  everywhere  broken  up  by  in- 
land seas,  pierced  by  deep  gulfs,  jagged  with  peninsulas,  head- 
lands, capes,  and  promontories  ;  islands  and  crowded  archipela- 
goes are  thickly  sprinkled  along  the  coasts.  Great  Britain  and 
the  Greek  peninsula  particularly,  which  have  a  coast-line  out 
of  all  proportion  to  their  area,  contrast  with  the  impenetrable 
compact  mass  of  Eastern  Europe.  This  strongly  marked  con- 


VOL.  I. 


18  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  I. 

tour  of  the  western  lands  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  Euro- 
pean geography,  while  the  immense  spaces  of  which  Russia  is 
composed  seem  to  be  the  continuation  of  the  plains  and  plateaux 
of  Northern  and  Central  Asia.  No  doubt  Russia  is  washed 
by  many  seas :  in  the  north  by  the  Arctic  Ocean,  which  pene- 
trates deep  into  the  country  by  the  vast  reaches  of  the  White 
Sea ;  in  the  south  by  the  Caspian,  the  Sea  of  Azof,  and  the 
Black  Sea ;  in  the  northwest  by  the  Baltic  and  the  gulfs  of 
Bothnia,  Finland,  and  Livonia ;  but,  with  all  these  waters,  it 
has  only  a  comparatively  meagre  share  of  seaboard.  While 
the  rest  of  Europe  has  about  twenty-five  thousand  kilometers 
of  coast,  Russia,  with  a  much  more  considerable  surface,  pos- 
sesses only  eight  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty  kilometers, 
and  of  this,  four  thousand  four  hundred  and  seven,  nearly  a 
half,  belong  to  the  Arctic  Ocean  and  the  White  Sea.  But 
these  two  seas  are  navigable  during  only  a  few  months  of  the 
year,  from  June  to  September,  at  furthest.  The  Baltic,  in  its 
two  most  northern  gulfs,  easily  freezes ;  armies  have  been  able 
to  cross  on  the  ice,  with  all  their  artillery  and  supplies  ;  navi- 
gation is  stopped  from  the  month  of  November  to  the  end 
of  April.  The  Caspian  is  often  frozen,  especially  in  its  north- 
ern half,  which  includes  Astrakhan,  its  most  flourishing  port. 
The  Sea  of  Azof,  here  and  there,  is  little  better  than  a  marsh. 
It  may  be  said  that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Euxine,  the 
Russian  seas  have  an  anti-European  character;  they  cannot  be 
of  the  same  use  as  our  western  seas.  From  this  point  of  view 
Russia  is  worse  endowed  by  nature  than  any  other  European 
country ;  compared  with  the  privileged  lands  of  the  West,  it 
might  be  styled  continental  Europe,  in  opposition  to  maritime 
Europe. 

Western  Europe,  besides  being  so  jagged  in  its  contour,  is 
extremely  irregular  in  its  surface.  Without  speaking  of  the 
vast  central  mass  of  the  Alps,  there  is  not  one  European  land 
which  does  not  possess,  either  in  its  length  or  breadth,  a  great 
mountain  system  forming  the  scaffolding  or  the  backbone  of 


CHAP.  I.]  GEOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  19 

the  country.  England  has  its  chain  of  the  Peak  and  its  High- 
lands ;  France  has  its  Cevennes  and  its  central  support  in 
Auvergne ;  Spain,  its  Pyrenees  and  Sierras ;  Italy,  its  Apen- 
nines ;  Germany,  its  ranges  in  Suabia,  Franconia,  and  the 
Hartz  ;  Sweden,  her  Scandinavian  Alps  ;  the  Greco-Slav  pen- 
insula has  the  Balkan  and  Pindus.  On  the  contrary,  all  the 
mountains  belonging  to  Russia  are  found  on  the  extremities 
of  its  territory.  It  is  bounded  on  the  northwest  by  the 
granitic  system  of  Finland,  on  the  southeast  by  the  branches 
of  the  Carpathians,  on  the  south  by  the  rocky  plateaux  of  the 
Crimea  with  the  Yaila  and  the  Tcharduir-Dagh  rising  fifteen 
hundred  and  eighty  meters,  by  the  Caucasus,  extending  over 
eleven  hundred  kilometers,  where  Elburz,  five  thousand  six 
hundred  and  forty  meters  in  height,  surpasses  Mont  Blanc,  the 
highest  mountain  in  Europe,  by  more  than  seven  hundred 
meters.  To  the  east  is  the  Ural  range,  the  longest  chain  of 
mountains  in  Europe  or  Asia,  running  two  thousand  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  kilometers  parallel  to  the  meridians  of  longitude, 
with  peaks  nineteen  hundred  meters  high.  In  the  Tatar 
language  the  word  Ural  signifies  girdle,  but  it  is  not  only  the 
Urals  which  may  be  called  the  mountain-girdle;  all  the  moun- 
tains of  Russia  deserve  this  name.  They  bound  it,  they  con- 
fine it,  but  have  only  a  slight  influence  on  the  configuration  of 
its  interior  and  the  distribution  of  its  waters.  From  the  Carpa- 
thians and  the  Caucasus  only  secondary  rivers  flow,  while  the 
four  great  Russian  streams  take  their  rise  in  hills  not  one  hun- 
dred meters  higher  than  the  surrounding  country,  or  three 
hundred  and  sixty  meters  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  We 
must  observe  also  that  none  of  these  mountains  form  a  sepa- 
rate system,  they  are  nearly  all  fragments  of  systems  belong- 
ing to  other  countries.  The  empire  of  the  Tsars  is  thus  an 
immense  plain,  which  is  continued  on  the  west  by  the  level 
lands  of  Poland  and  Prussia,  and  on  the  east  by  the  limitless 
steppes  of  Siberia  and  Turkestan,  and  is  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  rugged  and  multiform  soil  of  the  west.  From  this 


20  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  I. 

point  of  view,  Russia  may  be  defined  as  the  Europe  of  plains, 
in  contradistinction  to  the  Europe  of  mountains. 

Uniformity  of  surface  is  never  quite  complete,  and  Russia 
presents  inequalities  of  soil,  though  these  are  far  less  notable 
than  the  depressions  and  elevations  of  the  West.  In  the  faintly 
marked  surface  of  Russia  we  must  notice,  in  the  centre  of  the 
country,  a  kind  of  square  tableland,  called  the  central  plateau, 
or  the  plateau  of  Alaun,  from  the  name  of  its  northern  part. 
The  northeastern  angle  is  formed  by  the  heights  of  the  Val- 
dai plateau,  where  the  hills  are  one  hundred  meters  high ; 
the  western  side  of  the  central  plateau,  by  the  small  hills  of 
the  Dnieper,  which  extend  as  far  as  the  Cataracts,  or  more 
properly  the  Rapids ;  the  southern  side,  by  the  heights  which 
reach  from  Kursk  to  Saratof ;  the  eastern  side,  by  the  sandy 
stretches  which  extend  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Volga  and 
the  Kama ;  the  northern  side,  by  the  undulations  of  the  land 
which  separate  the  basin  of  the  Volga  from  the  rivers  that 
drain  into  the  'Arctic  Ocean.  Moreover,  the  central  plateau 
is  divided  into  two  unequal  parts  by  the  deep  valleys  of  the 
Upper  Volga,  of  the  Oka,  and  their  tributaries. 

Considerable  depressions  correspond  to  this  swelling  in  the 
centre  of  the  Russian  territory  :  Between  the  plateau  of  the 
Valdai  and  the  northeast  slope  of  the  Carpathians  lies  a  deep 
valley,  in  which  during  the  quaternary  age  the  Baltic  and 
Euxine  mingled  their  waves.  It  is  traversed  on  the  north  by 
the  Southern  Dwina,  or  Dvina,  and  the  Niemen  ;  on  the  south, 
by  the  Dnieper  and  its  affluents ;  it  reaches  its  lowest  level  in 
the  wide  marshes  of  Pinsk. 

Again,  between  the  low  cliffs  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Volga  and  the  spurs  of  the  Ural,  the  soil  gradually  sinks 
throughout  the  whole  length  of  the  Volga,  and  finally  reaches 
the  level  of  the  sea  at  the  Caspian,  which  is  twenty-five 
meters  lower  than  the  Black  Sea :  here  are  the  steppes  of 
Kirghiz,  the  lowest  part  of  European  Russia,  formerly  the  bed 
of  a  great  inland  sea,  which  was  gradually  dried  up,  and 


KIRGHIZ    TATARS. 


CHAP.  I.]  GEOGRAPHY  OF  EUSSIA.  21 

of  which  the  Caspian,  the  Lake  of  Aral,  and  other  sheets  of 
water  are  only  the  remains.  Should  the  Caspian  rise  again 
but  to  the  level  of  the  Black  Sea,  a  large  part  of  this  sterile 
plain,  now  covered  with  saline  efflorescence,  would  be  inun- 
dated anew. 

The  third  great  depression  of  the  Russian  soil  is  the  slope 
of  the  north,  covered  with  lakes  and  marshes,  where  the  frozen 
swamps  called  the  tundra  are  lost  among  the  ice-fields  of  the 
Polar  Ocean  and  the  White  Sea. 

The  fourth  great  depression  is  the  region  of  the  lakes  Saima, 
Onega,  Ladoga,  which  is  continued  by  the  sandy  tracts  of  the 
Baltic,  and  which  forms  a  series  of  deep  cavities,  where  the 
waters  of  the  Baltic  and  the  White  Sea  must  once  have  found 
a  meeting-point. 

From  the  fact  that  Russia,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  only  a  vast 
plain,  it  follows  that  its  surface  is  swept  by  Polar  winds, 
which  are  kept  off  by  no  mountain  barrier,  for  the  Ural  chain 
runs  in  a  direction  parallel  to  their  course.  Again,  from  the 
fact  that  Russia  is  washed  only  by  seas  which  are  small  in 
proportion  to  the  extent  of  the  land,  it  results  that  the  tem- 
perature is  modified  neither  by  sea-breezes,  such  as  in  the 
West  warm  in  winter  and  refresh  in  summer,  nor  by  the  aerial 
and  marine  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  which  finally  expires 
on  the  coasts  and  on  the  mountains  of  Scandinavia,  without 
being  able  to  influence  the  shores  of  the  Baltic.  This  moun- 
tain barrier  makes  a  notable  difference  between  the  Norwegian 
and  the  Swedish-Russian  climate  in  similar  latitudes. 

Russia,  then,  like  the  interior  of  Asia,  Africa,  or  Australia, 
has  to  undergo  the  effects  of  a  purely  continental  climate. 
The  first  of  these  effects  is  a  great  contrast  between  the  sea- 
sons. The  Russian  plain  is  subject  in  turn  to  the  influences 
of  Polar  regions  and  to  those  of  Central  and  Southern  Asia, 
of  the  deserts  of  ice  and  the  deserts  of  burning  sand.  "  In 
the  latitude  of  Paris  and  of  Venice,"  says  M.  Anatole  Leroy- 
Beaulieu,  "  the  countries  situated  to  the  north  of  the  Black 


22  HISTOBY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  I. 

Sea  and  the  Caspian  have  the  temperature  of  Stockholm  in 
January,  and  the  temperature  of  Madeira  in  July.  At  Astra- 
khan, in  the  latitude  of  Geneva,  it  is  by  no  means  rare  for  the 
temperature  to  vary  from  seventy  to  seventy-five  degrees  cen- 
tigrade in  a  period  of  six  months.  On  the  coasts  of  the  Cas- 
pian, in  the  latitude  of  Avignon,  the  cold  descends  to  thirty 
degrees  below  freezing ;  in  summer,  on  the  contrary,  the  heat 
rises  to  upwards  of  forty  degrees.  In  the  steppes  of  the 
Kirghiz,  in  the  latitude  of  the  centre  of  France,  the  mercury 
is  sometimes  frozen  for  whole  days  ;  while  in  the  summer  the 
same  thermometer,  if  not  carefully  watched,  bursts  in  the  sun. 
Near  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Aral  these  extremes  of  temper- 
ature reach  their  maximum ;  there  are  intervals  of  eighty, 
perhaps  of  ninety  degrees,  centigrade,  between  the  greatest 
cold  and  the  greatest  heat."  Even  at  Moscow  they  have  had 
cold  of  thirty -three  and  heat  of  twenty-eight  degrees ;  at  St. 
Petersburg  the  temperature  may  shift  between  the  extremes 
of  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  degrees  of  cold  to  thirty-one  of 
heat. 

The  second  consequence  of  the  continental  climate  of  Rus- 
sia is  that  the  winds  do  not  reach  the  country  till  they  have 
lost  on  the  way  part  of  their  humidity.  Russia  suffers  gen- 
erally from  dryness.  At  Kazan  the  rainfall  is  only  half  that  of 
Paris ;  it  is  for  this  reason  that  Russia  contains  so  many  bar- 
ren and  imwooded  plains,  while  this  absence  of  forests  all 
through  the  south  is,  in  its  turn,  an  obstacle  to  the  formation 
of  rills  and  springs,  and  to  the  development  of  a  healthy 
moisture. 

St.  Petersburg,  situated  on  the  sixtieth  parallel  of  northern 
latitude,  is  the  most  northern  capital  of  the  whole  world.  The 
longest  day  in  this  city  lasts  eighteen  hours  forty-five  minutes ; 
the  sun  rises  on  that  day  at  twenty  minutes  to  three,  and  sets 
at  twenty-five  minutes  past  nine,  but  the  twilight  is  prolonged 
to  the  moment  of  dawn.  For  two  months  there  is  no  night. 
The  shortest  day  is  five  hours  forty -seven  minutes;  the  sun 


- 


CHAP.  I.]  GEOGRAPHY   OF  RUSSIA.  23 

rises  at  five  minutes  past  nine  and  sets  at  eight  minutes  to 
three.  The  Aurora  Borealis  is  frequent  in  the  north  of 
Russia,  while  the  mirage  is  often  seen  in  the  steppes  of  the 
south. 

Russia  being  a  country  of  plains,  the  geological  strata  of 
which  the  soil  is  formed  are  nearly  always  horizontal ;  no  vio- 
lent upheaval  has  broken  them,  rent  the  beds  of  stone,  and 
driven  the  fragments  through  the  layers  of  mould  or  sand.  It 
follows  that,  except  in  the  neighborhood  of  mountains,  stone 
is  very  scarce  in  Russia.  This  fact  has  had  much  influence 
on  the  economic  and  artistic  development  of  the  country.  The 
people  were  obliged  to  build  with  other  materials  than  in  the 
West.  The  public  buildings  were  everywhere  of  oak  and  pine, 
or  of  brick ;  the  old  churches,  the  palaces  of  the  Tsars,  the 
ramparts  of  the  towns,  were  of  wood.  To-day  the  houses  of 
the  citizens  and  the  huts  of  the  peasants  are  of  wood.  Russian 
villages,  and  most  of  the  towns,  are  a  collection  of  combusti- 
ble materials ;  hence  the  fires  which  break  out  periodically, 
and  justify  the  saying  that  Russia,  as  a  rule,  is  burned 
every  seven  years.  Buildings  of  such  materials  cannot  assume 
the  colossal  proportions  of  the  castles  of  the  Isle  de  France,  or 
of  the  Rhenish  cathedrals;  the  old  churches  of  Russia  are 
small.  It  is  only  since  the  conquest  of  the  Baltic  and  the 
Black  Sea  that  the  empire  has  had  cities  of  stone.  Peter 
the  Great  gave  Russia  her  first  stone  capital.  From  the  geo- 
logical point  of  view,  then,  Russia  may  be  defined,  according 
to  the  expression  of  M.  Solovief,  as  the  Europe  of  wood,  in 
distinction  from  the  Europe  of  stone. 

RUSSIAN  RIVERS  AND  HISTORY. 

In  a  country  so  extensive  and  so  destitute  of  seaboard  as 
Russia,  rivers  have  an  immense  importance,  and  with  rivers 
Eastern  Europe  is  well  endowed.  It  is  its  watercourses  which 
prevent  Russia  from  being  a  continent  closed  and  sealed,  like 


24  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  I. 

Africa  or  Australia.  In  place  of  estuaries  it  has  great  rivers 
which  penetrate  to  the  centre,  and  have  sometimes  almost  the 
proportions  of  seas.  In  the  level  plains  they  have  not  the  im- 
petuous current  of  the  Rhone,  they  flow  peacefully  through 
wide  beds  cut  in  the  sand  or  clay.  The  rivers  were  for  a  long 
time  the  only  means  of  communication.  When  the  Russian 
princes  wished  to  make  a  progress  through  their  dominions, 
or  begin  a  campaign,  they  had  either  to  take  advantage  of 
winter,  which  from  the  Dnieper  to  the  Ural  gave  them  a  flat 
surface  for  their  sledges,  or  await  the  thaw  and  follow  the 
course  of  the  rivers.  Boats  in  summer,  sledges  in  winter, 
were  the  only  means  of  conveyance ;  in  spring  the  thaw  and 
floods,  which  transformed  the  plain  into  a  marsh,  brought  the 
rasputitsa,  the  season  of  bad  roads.  Commerce  followed  the 
same  routes  as  war  or  government.  The  rivers  which,  in 
Russia  especially,  are  "  the  roads  that  run,"  explain  the  rapid- 
ity with  which  we  see  the  characters  of  Russian  history  trav- 
erse immense  spaces,  and  go  as  easily  from  Novgorod  to  Kief, 
from  Moscow  to  Kazan,  as  a  French  king  from  his  good  city 
of  Paris  to  Rheims  or  Orleans.  The  rivers  are  the  allies  of 
the  Russians  against  what  they  call  "  their  great  enemy,"  — 
space.  Russian  conquest  or  colonization  has  everywhere  fol- 
lowed the  course  of  the  waters ;  it  was  on  the  banks  of  the 
Oka,  the  Kama,  the  Don,  and  the  Volga,  that  the  Russian 
element  of  the  population  chiefly  gathered,  the  aboriginal 
races  everywhere  retreating  into  the  thickness  of  the  primitive 
forests. 

The  plateau  of  Valdai  is  the  dominant  point  in  the  river- 
system  of  Russia.  It  is  near  this  plateau,  in  Lake  Volga,  that 
the  Volga,  which  ultimately  falls  into  the  Caspian,  takes  its 
rise.  In  this  neighborhood  also  are  the  sources  of  the  Dnie- 
per, flowing  to  the  Black  Sea,  the  Niemen,  the  Dwina,  which 
falls  into  the  Baltic,  the  Velikai'a,  a  tributary  of  the  Pe'ipus, 
the  rivers  forming  Lake  Ilmen,  and  those  which  feed  the 
lakes  Ladoga  and  Onega,  whence  rises  the  Neva.  The  hydro- 


CHAP.  I.]  GEOGRAPHY  OP  RUSSIA.  25 

graphic  centre  of  Russia  being  at  the  northwest  angle  of  the 
central  plateau,  it  follows  that  the  slopes  are  turned  to  the 
south  and  to  the  east ;  a  disposition  which  has  had  its  influ- 
ence on  the  development  of  the  national  history.  This  histoiy, 
indeed,  begins  in  the  northwest,  near  the  Valda'i  plateau ;  on 
the  Pe'ipus  and  the  Ilmen  the  old  commercial  cities  of  Pskof 
and  Novgorod  are  established.  What  is  their  opening  to  the 
sea?  Not  the  Narova,  flowing  from  Lake  Peipus,  the  course 
of  which  is  broken  by  cataracts,  but  the  network  of  rivers  and 
lakes  "which  terminates  in  the  Neva,  the  Thames  of  Russia,  a 
river  of  little  length  but  immense  breadth,  on  which  St.  Peters- 
burg, the  Novgorod  of  the  eighteenth  century,  was  afterwards 
to  be  built.  In  primitive  times  Novgorod  was  safer  in  the 
centre  of  this  network  of  rivers  and  lakes  than  it  would  have 
been  on  the  Neva.  By  the  Volkhof  its  vessels  sailed  from  the 
Ilmen  to  the  Ladoga,  and  by  the  Neva  from  the  Ladoga  to 
the  Gulf  of  Finland  and  the  great  Baltic  Sea.  Other  small 
rivers  put  it  in  communication  with  Lake  Onega  and  the 
White  Lake ;  by  the  Sukhona  and  the  Northern  Dwina  it  had 
relations  with  the  White  Sea,  where  later  the  port  of  Arkhan- 
gel  was  built.  By  the  tributaries  of  the  Dwina  the  Novgorod 
explorers  penetrated  deep  into  the  northern  forests,  peopled  by 
aboriginal  races,  on  whom  they  imposed  tribute.  The  water- 
sheds between  the  slope  to  the  White  Sea,  the  basin  of  the 
Novgorod  lakes,  and  the  basin  of  the  Volga,  are  scarcely 
marked  at  all.  The  rivers  seem  to  hesitate  at  their  rise  be- 
tween two  opposite  courses  :  some  of  them  never  make  up 
their  minds,  like  the  sluggish  Sheksna,  which  connects  the 
White  Lake  and  the  Volga.  This  interlacement  of  the  water- 
system,  which  makes  the  Northern  Dwina,  the  Neva,  the 
Niemen,  and  the  Southern  Dwina  mere  prolongations  of  the 
Volga  and  the  Dnieper,  and  puts  the  four  Russian  seas  in  un- 
broken communication,  is  in  itself  a  sufficient  explanation  of 
the  extent  of  the  conquests  and  great  commercial  position  of 
Novgorod  the  Great. 


26  HISTOKY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  I. 

The  Rus  of  Kief  was  founded  on  the  Dnieper  at  a  very  early 
date,  as  a  Russian  rival  to  the  Russia  of  Novgorod.  It  also 
followed  the  line  marked  out  for  it  by  the  course  of  the  Dnieper, 
which  necessarily  turned  its  attention  toward  the  Black  Sea 
and  the  Byzantine  world. 

It  was  by  the  Dnieper  that  the  fleets  of  war  descended  against 
Constantinople;  it  was  by  this  river,  too,  that  Greek  civili- 
zation and  Christianity  reached  Kief.  The  Dnieper,  which 
made  the  greatness  of  Kief,  hastened  its  decay.  As  a  medium 
of  communication  it  was  imperfect.  The  celebrated  cataracts 
or  rapids  below  Kief  formed  an  insurmountable  barrier  to 
navigation,  and  consequently  the  city  could  not  remain  the 
political  and  commercial  capital  of  Russia. 

The  Don,  notwithstanding  its  length  of  a  thousand  kilo- 
meters, has  had  little  influence  on  the  evolution  of  Russian 
history.  During  the  whole  period  of  the  growth  of  the  nation 
it  remained  in  the  power  of  the  Asiatic  hordes.  In  later 
years  it  fell,  with  Azof,  into  the  possession  of  the  Turks.  The 
sandy  shallows  near  its  mouth  would  in  any  case  have  proved 
fatal  to  its  commercial  importance.  The  Dvina  and  the  Nie- 
men  also  remained  till  the  eighteenth  century  in  the  hands 
of  the  native  Finns  and  Lithuanians,  or  of  the  German  con- 
querors. 

But  the  great  river  of  Russia  is  the  Volga,  —  the  "  mother 
Volga,"  as  the  popular  singers  call  it.  If  the  Neva,  with  the 
great  lakes  which  feed  it,  may  be  compared  to  the  St.  Law- 
rence, the  Volga  may  be  compared  to  the  Mississippi.  With  a 
length  of  three  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-eight  kilo- 
meters, it  has  a  course  two  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  longer 
than  that  of  the  Danube.  Many  of  its  tributaries  may  be 
reckoned  among  the  great  rivers  of  the  world.  The  Oka,  with 
its  thousand  kilometers  of  extent,  surpasses  the  Meuse  and  the 
Oder ;  the  Kama,  two  thousand  kilometers  long,  outvies  all 
other  European  rivers  except  the  Danube ;  for  the  Elbe  is 
only  one  thousand  and  thirty  kilometers,  the  Loire  one  thou- 


CHAP.  I.]  GEOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  27 

sand  and  ninety,  and  the  Rhine  thirteen  hundred  in  length. 
The  junction  of  the  Volga  and  Oka  at  Nijni-Novgorod  is  like 
the  meeting  of  two  arms  of  the  sea  ;  it  is  an  imposing  spec- 
tacle to  contemplate  from  the  hill  on  which  the  upper  town  is 
built,  while  the  lower  town,  or  the  fair,  with  its  one  hundred 
thousand  fluctuating  inhabitants,  spreads  its  buildings  on 
the  banks  of  both  rivers.  The  Volga,  which  near  laroslavl  is 
six  hundred  and  thirty-nine  meters  broad,  has  a  breadth  of 
fourteen  hundred  above  Kazan  ;  towards  Samara  sometimes  it 
decreases  to  seven  hundred  and  forty-six  meters ;  sometimes 
it  spreads,  with  its  tributary  streams  and  lateral  branches, 
over  a  breadth  of  twenty-eight  kilometers.  At  the  Caspian  it 
divides  into  seventy-five  branches,  forming  numerous  islands, 
and  its  delta  spreads  over  one  hundred  and  fifty  kilometers. 
This  immense  river,  the  waters  of  which  abound  with  fish  as 
large  as  sea-fish,  —  sturgeon,  salmon,  lampreys, — and  where 
the  sterlet  sometimes  weighs  four  hundred  and  eighty-eight 
kilos,  would  be  the  wonder  of  Europe,  were  it  not  frost-bound 
during  many  months  in  the  year.  But  at  the  thaw  the  ports, 
the  dockyards,  the  wharves,  are  full  of  life.  Two  hundred 
thousand  workmen  flock  from  all  parts  of  Russia  to  its  banks. 
Fifteen  thousand  ships  and  five  hundred  steamboats  plough  its 
waters.  Kostroma,  Nijni-Novgorod,  Kazan,  Simbirsk,  Samara, 
Saratof,  Astrakhan,  are  filled  with  noise  and  activity.  It  seems 
as  if  the  whole  life  of  Russia  were  concentrated  on  the  Volga. 
The  basin  of  the  Volga  and  its  tributaries  embraces  an  ex- 
tent of  surface  nearly  treble  that  of  France.  The  basin  of  the 
Oka  alone  has  three  times  the  extent  of  the  basin  of  the  Loire. 
In  her  vast  domain  the  Volga  included  nearly  the  whole  of  the 
Russia  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  has  exercised  an  irresisti- 
ble influence  over  the  destiny  of  the  land.  From  the  day  that 
the  Grand  Princes  established  their  capital  on  the  Moskova,  a 
tributary  of  the  Oka  and  sub-tributary  of  the  Volga,  Russia 
turned  to  the  east,  and  began  its  struggle  with  the  Turks 
and  Tatars.  The  Dnieper  made  Russia  Byzantine,  the  Volga 


28  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  L 

made  it  Asiatic :  it  was  for  the  Neva  to  make  it  European. 
The  whole  history  of  this  country  is  the  history  of  its  three 
great  rivers,  and  is  divided  into  three  periods  :  that  of  the 
Dnieper  with  Kief,  that  of  the  Volga  with  Moscow,  that  of  the 
Neva  with  Novgorod  in  the  eighth  century  and  St.  Petersburg 
in  the  eighteenth.  The  greatness  of  this  creation  of  Peter  the 
First  consisted  in  his  transporting  his  capital  to  the  Baltic, 
without  abandoning  the  Caspian  and  the  Volga,  and  in  seek- 
ing for  the  great  eastern  river  a  new  outlet  which  should  open 
a  communication  with  western  seas.  By  means  of  the  canals 
of  the  Tikvinka  and  of  the  Ladoga,  which  furnished  that  outlet, 
the  Neva  has  become,  as  it  were,  the  northern  mouth,  the  Euro- 
pean estuary  of  the  Volga. 

THE  FOUR  ZONES:  THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  UNITY  OF  RUSSIA. 

Considered  as  a  productive  country,  Russia  may  be  divided 
into  four  unequal  bands,  which  run  from  the  southwest  to  the 
northeast,  namely  :  the  zone  of  forests,  that  of  the  Black  Land, 
that  of  the .  arable  steppes,  or  prairies,  and  that  of  the  barren 
steppes. 

The  most  northerly  zone  and  the  largest  is  that  of  the 
.Russian  forest,  which  touches  on  one  side  the  ever-frozen 
marshes  of  the  icy  shore,  and  on  the  other,  the  wide  clearings 
formed  by  the  agricultural  enterprise  of  Novgorod,  Moscow, 
and  laroslavl.  In  the  north  the  forest  begins  with  the  larch ; 
in  the  centre  resinous  trees,  with  their  dark  foliage,  alternate 
with  the  small  leaves  and  white  bark  of  the  birch ;  farther 
south  come  the  lime,  the  elm,  and  the  maple,  and  the  oak 
appears  at  the  southern  limit. 

The  Black  Land  extends  from  the  banks  of  the  Pruth  to  the 
Caucasus,  over  the  widest  extent  of  Russia ;  it  even  passes  the 
Ural  and  the  Caucasus,  and  is  prolonged  into  Asia.  It  derives 
its  name  from  a  deep  bed  of  black  mould  of  inexhaustible 
fertility,  which  produces  without  manure  the  richest  harvests, 


KALMIUKI,    OR    KALMUCK    TARTARS. 


CHAP.  I.]  GEOGRAPHY   OP  BUSSIA.  29 

and  may  be  compared  to  a  gigantic  Beauce  or  Champagne 
of  six  hundred  thousand  square  kilometers,  a  cornfield  as 
large  as  the  whole  of  France.  From  this  alone  twenty-five 
millions  are  fed,  and  the  population  increases  daily.  From 
time  immemorial  this  soil  has  been  the  granary  of  Eastern 
Europe.  It  was  here  Herodotus  placed  his  agricultural  Scyth- 
ians, and  hence  Athens  drew  her  grain. 

The  zone  of  arable  steppes  lies  parallel  to  the  Black  Land ; 
to  the  south,  it  descends  nearly  to  the  sea :  the  country  is  fer- 
tile, though  it  cannot  do  without  manure.  Before  it  began  to 
be  tilled  it  formed  a  bare,  grass-grown  plain,  completely  devoid 
of  wood,  and  with  its  six  hundred  thousand  square  kilometers 
recalls  the  American  prairie.  The  vegetation  of  the  steppe, 
where  men  and  flocks  can  hide  themselves  as  in  a  forest,  is 
often  five,  six,  and  even  eight  feet  high.  This  monotonous 
steppe,  unbroken  except  by  the  barrows  that  cover  the  bones 
of  early  races,  —  this  steppe,  which  is  an  ocean  of  verdure  in 
spring,  but  russet  and  burnt  up  in  the  autumn,  is  very  dear  to 
its  children.  It  was  long  the  Russia  of  heroes,  the  property 
of  nomad  horsemen,  the  country  of  the  Cossack.  The  Black 
Land  and  the  prairie,  which  is  nearly  as  fertile,  have  an  area 
of  twelve  hundred  thousand  square  kilometers,  or  one  hundred 
and  twenty  million  hectars  of  excellent  earth,  a  surface  equal 
to  that  of  France  and  Austrian  Hungary  united. 

The  fourth  zone,  that  of  the  barren  steppes,  —  steppes  which 
are  sandy  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dnieper,  clay  to  the  north  of 
the  Crimea,  saline  to  the  north  of  the  Caspian,  — contains  only 
fifteen  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  in  its  whole  extent  of 
four  hundred  thousand  square  kilometers.  "  Unsuited  to  agri- 
culture, and  in  a  great  degree  to  civilized  life,"  says  M.  Leroy- 
Beaulieu,  "these  vast  spaces,  like  the  neighboring  plains  of 
Asia,  seem  fit  only  for  the  raising  of  cattle  and  the  existence 
of  nomads.  Of  all  Russia  in  Europe,  these  are  the  only  parts 
which,  even  at  the  present  day,  are  inhabited  by  the  Kirghiz 
and  the  Kalmuiki,  nomad  tribes  of  Asia,  and  up  to  a  few 


30  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  I. 

years  ago  by  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Nogaetsui,  or 
Nogais.  Here  the  Asiatics  appear  as  much  at  home  as  in  their 
native  country." 

The  productive  parts  of  Russia  are  these :  the  prairie,  the 
Black  Land,  and  in  the  zone  of  forests  the  agricultural  and 
industrial  region  of  Novgorod,  Moscow,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and 
Kazan.  Were  the  sea-level  to  rise  and  drown  the  northern 
part  of  the  forest  region  and  the  barren  steppes  of  the  south, 
nothing  would  be  taken  from  the  real  power  and  riches  of 
Russia. 

These  alternations  of  low  plains  and  plateaux,  this  diversity 
in  the  direction  of  the  great  rivers,  this  division  into  forests, 
arable  steppes,  and  barren  deserts,  does  not  hinder  Eastern 
Europe  from  presenting  a  remarkable  unity.  None  of  the 
parts  of  Russia  could  remain  isolated  from  the  others :  the 
plains  admit  of  no  barrier,  no  frontier ;  those  which  the  rivers 
might  impose  would  be  broken  over  in  winter  by  the  army- 
wagons,  when  the  land  is  ice-bound  from  the  White  Sea  to 
the  Euxine,  and  the  climate  is  almost  as  severe  at  Kief  as 
at  Arkhangel.  All  these  regions,  which  resume  their  differ- 
ent characters  in  spring,  are  kept  together  by  economical 
interests  and  needs.  The  forest  zone  needs  the  corn  of  the 
Dnieper,  the  cattle  of  the  Volga ;  the  steppes  of  the  south 
need  the  wood  of  the  north.  The  commerce  with  Europe, 
which  was  conducted  by  means  of  the  Northern  Dwina,  the 
Neva,  and  the  Southern  Dwina,  was  completed  by  that  with 
the  south  and  the  east,  carried  on  by  the  Dnieper  and  the 
Volga. 

Only  the  region  of  Moscow,  where  fields  and  woods  alter- 
nate, was  long  sufficient  for  its  own  wants ;  but  since  Mos- 
cow has  turned  to  industrial  arts,  it  needs  help  from  others. 
In  early  times  it  united  the  products  of  the  north  and  the 
south  ;  it  thus  formed  the  connecting  link  between  them,  and 
ended  by  becoming  their  ruler.  Even  Novgorod  was  forced 
to  acknowledge  its  dependence  on  the  princes  established  on 


CHAP.  L]  GEOGRAPHY  OF   RUSSIA.  31 

the  Oka,  who  had  only  to  forbid  the  transportation  of  corn 
from  the  Upper  Volga  to  the  region  of  the  lakes,  to  reduce  the 
Great  Republic  to  obedience. 

The  wide  plains  of  Russia  are  as  evidently  destined  to  be 
united  as  Switzerland  to  be  divided.  Between  the  Carpa- 
thians and  the  Urals,  between  the  Caucasus  and  the  system 
of  Finland,  nature  has  marked  out  a  vast  empire  of  which  the 
mountain  girdle  forms  the  framework.  How  this  framework 
has  been  filled  in  is  the  lesson  that  history  has  to  teach  us. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA. 

GREEK  COLONIES  AND  THE  SCYTHIA  OF  HERODOTUS.  —  THE  RUSSIAN 
SLAVS  OF  NESTOR.  —  LITHUANIAN,  FINNISH,  AND  TURKISH  HORDES 
IN  THE  NINTH  CENTURY.  —  DIVISION  OF  THE  RUSSIANS  PROPER 
INTO  THREE  BRANCHES. HOW  RUSSIA  WAS  COLONIZED. 


GREEK  COLONIES  AND  THE   SCYTHIA  OF  HERODOTUS. 


early  Greeks  had  established  trading-posts  and 
J_  founded  flourishing  colonies  on  the  northern  shores  of 
the  Black  Sea.  The  Milesians  and  Megarians  built  Tomi, 
or  Kustenje,  near  the  Danube,  Istros  at  its  mouth,  Tyras 
at  that  of  the  Dniester,  Odessos  at  that  of  the  Bug,  Olbia 
at  that  of  the  Dnieper,  Chersonesos,  or  Kherson,  on  the 
roadstead  of  Sevastopol,  Palakion,  which  afterwards  became 
Balaklava,  Theodosia,  which  became  KafFa,  Pantikapea,  now 
Kertch,  and  Phanagoria  on  the  two  shores  of  the  Strait  of 
lenikale,  Tanai's  at  the  mouth  of  the  Don,  Apatouros  in 
the  Kuban,  Phasis,  Dioscurias,  and  Pityus  at  the  foot  of 
the  Caucasus,  on  the  coast  of  ancient  Colchis.  Pantika- 
pea, Phanagoria,  and  Theodosia  formed,  in  the  fourth  cen- 
tury before  Christ,  a  confederation  with  a  hereditary  chief, 
called  the  Arkhon  of  the  Bosphorus,  at  its  head,  whose 
authority  was  acknowledged  also  by  some  of  the  barbarous 
tribes. 

Russian  archaeologists,  and,  quite  recently,  M.  Uvarof,  have 
brought  to  light  many  monuments  of  Greek  civilization, 
funeral  pillars,  inscriptions,  bas-reliefs,  statues  of  gods  and 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY   OF  EUSSIA.  33 

heroes.  We  know  that  the  colonists  carefully  preserved  the 
Greek  civilization,  cultivated  the  arts  of  their  mother  cities, 
repeated  the  poems  of  Homer  as  they  marched  to  battle, 
loved  eloquent  speeches  as  late  as  the  time  of  Dion  Chrysos- 
tom,  and  paid  a  special  worship  to  the  memory  of  Achilles. 
Beyond  the  line  of  Greek  colonies  dwelt  a  whole  world  of 
tribes,  whom  the  Greeks  designated  by  the  common  name 
of  Scythians,  with  whom  they  entered  into  wars  and  alli- 
ances, and  who  served  them  as  middlemen  in  their  trade  with 
the  countries  of  the  north.  Herodotus  has  given  us  nearly 
all  that  was  known  of  these  barbarians  in  the  fifth  century 
before  Christ. 

The  Scythians  worshipped  a  sword  fixed  in  the  earth  as  an 
image  of  the  god  of  war,  and  shed  human  blood  in  sacrifice. 
They  drank  the  blood  of  the  first  enemy  killed  in  battle, 
scalped  their  prisoners,  and  used  their  skulls  as  drinking-cups. 
They  performed  terrible  burial-rites  in  honor  of  their  kings, 
and  celebrated  the  anniversaries  of  their  death  by  strangling 
their  horses  and  slaves,  and  leaving  the  impaled  corpses  to 
surround  the  royal  burial  mound  with  a  circle  of  horsemen. 
They  honored  the  memory  of  the  wise  Anacharsis,  who 
travelled  among  the  Greeks.  Their  nomad  hordes  defied  the 
power  of  Darius  Hystaspes. 

Among  the  Scythians,  properly  so  called,  Herodotus  distin- 
guished the  agricultural  Scythians  established  on  the  Dnieper, 
probably  in  the  Black  Land  of  the  Ukraina;  the  nomad 
Scythians,  who  extended  fourteen  days'  journey  to  the  east ; 
the  royal  Scythians,  encamped  round  the  Sea  of  Azof,  who 
regarded  the  other  Scythians  as  their  slaves. 

The  barbarism  of  the  inland  tribes  became  rapidly  modified 
under  the  influence  of  the  powerful  cities  of  Olbia  and  Cher- 
sonesos,  and  the  Greco-Scythian  state  of  the  Bosphorus.  In 
the  tombs  of  the  Scythian  kings  of  what  is  now  the  govern- 
ment of  Ekaterinoslaf,  as  well  as  in  those  of  the  Greco-Scyth- 
ian princes  of  the  Bosphorus,  works  of  art  have  been  found 


VOL.   1. 


34  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

which  show  the  genius  of  the  Greeks  accommodating  itself  to 
the  taste  of  the  barbarians,  precious  vases  chiselled  for  them 
by  Athenian  artis.ts,  and  all  the  jewels  which  at  present  enrich 
the  museums  of  Kertch,  Odessa,  and  St.  Petersburg. 

The  Hermitage  Museum  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  particular, 
possesses  two  vases  of  an  incomparable  artistic  and  archa3ologic 
value.  They  are  the  silver  vase  of  Nikopol  in  the  government 
of  Ekaterinoslaf  and  the  golden  vase  of  Kertch,  and  date  from 
the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  or  about  the  period  when 
Herodotus  wrote  his  history,  of  which  they  are  the  lively  com- 
mentary. The  Scythians  of  the  silver  vase,  with  their  long 
hair,  their  long  beards,  large  features,  tunics  and  trousers, 
reproduce  very  fairly  the  physiognomy,  stature,  and  costume 
of  the  present  inhabitants  of  the  same  countries ;  we  see  them 
breaking  in  and  bridling  their  horses  in  exactly  the  same  way 
as  they  do  it  to-day  on  those  plains.  The  Scythians  of  the 
golden  vase,  notwithstanding  their  pointed  caps,  their  gar- 
ments embroidered  and  ornamented  after  the  Asiatic  taste, 
and  their  strangely  shaped  bows,  are  of  a  very  marked  Aryan 
type.  The  former  might  very  well  have  been  the  agricultural 
Scythians  of  Herodotus,  perhaps  the  ancestors  of  the  agricul- 
tural Slavs  of  the  Dnieper;  the  latter,  the  royal  Scythians 
who  led  a  nomad  and  warlike  life.  The  philological  studies 
of  M.  Bergmann  and  M.  Miillendorf  tend  to  identify  the 
Scythian  idiom  with  the  Indo-European  family  of  languages. 
"They  were  then,"  says  M.  Georges  Perrot,  "in  spite  of 
many  apparent  differences  of  language,  customs,  and  civili- 
zation, nearly  related  to  the  Greeks,  and  this  kinship  perhaps 
contributed,  without  the  knowledge  of  either  Greeks  or  bar- 
barians, to  facilitate  the  relations  between  Hellenes  and 
Scythians." 

Herodotus  takes  care  to  make  an  emphatic  distinction  be- 
tween the  Scythians  properly  so  called  and  certain  other 
peoples  about  whom  he  has  strange  stories  to  tell.  These 
peoples  are  the  Melankhlainoi,  who  wear  black  raiment ;  the 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  35 

Neuroi,  who,  once  a  year,  become  were-wolves;  the  Aga- 
thyrsoi,  who  array  themselves  in  golden  ornaments,  and  have 
their  women  in  common ;  the  Sauromatoi,  sprung  from  the 
loves  of  the  Scythians  with  the  Amazons ;  the  Budinoi  and 
Gelonoi,  slightly  tinged  with  Greek  culture ;  the  Thysagetai, 
the  Massagetai,  the  lurkai,  who  lived  on  the  produce  of  the 
chase ;  the  Argippaioi,  who  were  bald  and  snub-nosed  from 
their  birth ;  the  Issedones,  who  used  to  devour  their  dead 
parents  with  great  pomp  and  ceremony ;  the  one  -  eyed  Ari- 
maspoi ;  the  Gryphons,  guardians  of  fabled  gold ;  the  Hyper- 
boreans, who  dwell  in  a  land  where,  summer  and  winter,  the 
snow-flakes  fall  like  a  shower  of  white  feathers. 

It  seems  probable  that  among  all  these  peoples  there  may 
be  some  who  have  since  emigrated  westwards,  and  who  may 
belong  to  the  German  and  Gothic  races.  Others,  again,  may 
have  continued  to  maintain  themselves,  under  different  names, 
in  Eastern  Europe,  such  as  the  Slavs,  the  Finns,  and  even  a 
certain  number  of  Turkish  tribes.  M.  Rittich  believes  he  can 
identify  the  Melankhlainoi  of  Herodotus  with  the  Esthonians, 
who  still  prefer  dark  raiment;  the  Androphagoi  with  the 
Samoyedui,  the  Issedones  with  the  Voguls,  who  may  very 
well  have  dwelt  on  the  Isseta,  a  sub-tributary  of  the  Obi ;  the 
Arimaspoi  with  the  Votiaki,  whom  the  Turks  now  call  the  Ari ; 
the  Argippaioi,  Aorses,  and  Zyrians  of  Strabo  with  the  Erzui 
or  Zyrians ;  the  Massagetai  with  the  Bashkirs.  M.  Vivien 
de  Saint-Martin  recognizes  the  Agathyrsoi  in  the  Agatzirs  of 
Priscus,  who  wrote  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  four  hundred  and 
forty-nine,  and  Acatzirs  of  Jornandes,  who  are  the  Khazarui. 
The  Finns,  then,  have  formed  the  most  widely  spread  race  of 
Scythia. 


36  HISTOEY  OF  BUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 


THE  RUSSIAN  SLAVS  OF  NESTOR  THE  CHRONICLER.— 
LITHUANIAN,  FINNISH,  AND  TURKISH  CLANS  IN  THE 
NINTH  CENTURY. 

The  great  barbaric  invasions  in  the  fourth  century  of  our 
era  formed  a  period  of  change  and  terrible  catastrophe  in 
Eastern  Europe.  The  Goths,  under  Hermanaric,  founded  a 
vast  empire  in  Eastern  Scythia.  The  Huns,  under  Attila, 
overthrew  this  Gothic  dominion,  and  a  cloud  of  Finnish  peo- 
ples, Avarui  and  Bulgarians,  followed  later  by  Magyars  and 
Khazarui,  hurried  swiftly  on  the  traces  of  the  Huns.  In  the 
midst  of  this  strife  and  medley  of  peoples,  the  Slavs  came  to 
the  front  with  their  own  marked  character,  and  appeared  in 
history  under  their  proper  name.  They  were  described  by  the 
Greek  chroniclers  and  by  the  Emperors  Maurice  and  Constan- 
tine  Porphyrogenitus.  They  clashed  against  the  Roman  Em- 
pire of  the  East ;  they  began  the  secular  contest  between  the 
Greek  and  Slavonic  races,  a  contest  which  is  still  being  waged 
for  the  prize  of  mastery  in  the  peninsula  of  the  Balkans.  Cer- 
tain tribes  formed  a  separate  group  among  the  others,  and  re- 
ceived the  name  of  the  Russian  Slavs.  Nestor,  the  first  Russian 
historian,  a  monk  of  Kief,  of  the  twelfth  century,  has  described 
their  geographical  distribution  as  it  existed  two  hundred  years 
before  his  time.  The  Slavs,  properly  so  called,  inhabited  the 
basin  of  the  Ilmen  and  the  west  bank  of  Lake  Peipus ;  their 
towns,  Novgorod,  Pskof,  Izborsk,  appear  in  the  very  beginning 
of  the  history  of  Russia.  The  Krivitchi,  again,  were  settled 
on  the  sources  of  the  Dwina  and  the  Dnieper,  round  their  city  of 
Smolensk.  The  Polotchane  had  Polotsk,  on  the  Upper  Dwina. 
The  Dregovitchi  dwelt  on  the  west  of  the  Dwina  and  of  the 
Upper  Dnieper,  and  held  Turof.  The  Radimitchi  abode  on  the 
Soja,  a  tributary  of  the  Dnieper,  and  possessed  the  old  cities  of 
Ovrutch  and  Korosten ;  the  Viatitchi,  on  the  Higher  Oka ; 
the  Drevliane,  so  called  from  the  thick  forests  which  covered 
their  territory,  in  the  basin  of  the  Pripet.  Between  the  Desna 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  37 

arid  the  Dnieper,  the  Severiane  were  established ;  their  towns 
were  Lubetch,  Tchernigof,  and  Pereiaslavl.  The  Poliane  faced 
the  Severiane  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Dnieper ;  Kief  was  their 
centre.  The  White  Kroats  abode  between  the  Dniester  and 
the  Carpathians ;  the  Tivertssui  and  the  Loutitchi  on  the  Lower 
Dniester  and  the  Pruth ;  the  Dulebui  and  the  Bujane  on  the 
Bug,  a  tributary  of  the  Vistula. 

Nestor's  list  of  the  Russian  Slavs  shows  that,  in  the  ninth 
century  of  our  era,  when  their  history  begins,  they  occupied 
but  a  small  part  of  the  Russia  of  to-day.  They  were  almost 
completely  penned  in  the  districts  of  the  Dwina  and  the  Upper 
Dnieper,  of  the  Ilmen  and  the  Dniester.  In  all  the  immense 
basin  of  the  Caspian,  their  share  was  only  the  land  they  occu- 
pied around  the  sources  of  the  Volga  and  the  Oka. 

On  the  west  and  north,  the  Russian  Slavs  bordered  on  other 
Slavonic  tribes,  which,  about  this  period,  acquired  distinct 
national  names.  Some  groups,  scattered  about  the  Upper 
Elbe  and  the  two  banks  of  the  Vistula,  after  the  invasion  of 
the  Tcheki  and  the  Liakhi,  or  Lekhitui,  from  the  fourth  to  the 
seventh  century,  formed  themselves  into  the  states  of  Bohemia 
and  Poland. 

Other  tribes  on  the  Marsh,  or  Morava,  made,  in  the  king- 
dom of  Moravia,  their  first  attempt  to  secure  political  existence 
during  the  ninth  century.  Certain  others  scattered  on  the 
Lower  Danube  formed  the  kingdom  of  Bulgaria,  after  the  in- 
vasion of  the  Bulgarians  under  Asparukh  in  six  hundred  and 
eighty.  In  a  more  distant  land  on  the  Adriatic,  the  Servian 
and  Kroatian  tribes  were  preparing  to  organize  themselves 
into  the  kingdoms  of  Kroatia,  Dalmatia,  and  Servia.  On  the 
Baltic  were  the  Slavs  of  Pomerania,  the  Havelians  of  Bran- 
denburg and  Sprevanians  of  the  banks  of  the  Elbe,  the  Obo- 
tritui,  Viltzui,  Lutitzi,  and  Sorabui,  or  Sorbui,  all  one  day  to  be 
absorbed  by  the  German  Conquest. 

At  this  period  there  was  little  difference  between  Russian 
and  Polish  Slavs.  M.  Kulish  thinks  that  conquests  achieved 


38  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IL 

by  two  different  races  of  men ;  that  the  adoption  of  two 
irreconcilable  creeds,  those  of  Rome  and  of  Byzantium ;  that 
the  influence  of  two  rival  civilizations,  the  Greek  and  the  Latin, 
with  their  separate  literatures  and  alphabets,  —  that  all  these 
influences  created  two  antagonistic  peoples  in  the  midst  of  a 
race  of  one  blood,  and  stamped  on  the  inert  and  unconscious 
material  of  the  Slavonic  kindred  the  impress  of  two  hostile 
nationalities.  The  Slav,  moulded  by  the  Liakhi,  converted  to 
the  Church  of  Rome,  and  subject  to  the  influences  of  the  West, 
became  the  Pole.  The  Slav,  moulded  by  the  Variagi,  con- 
verted to  the  Greek  Church,  and  subject  to  Byzantine  influ- 
ences, became  the  Russian.  In  the  beginning,  on  the  Vistula, 
as  on  the  Dnieper,  all  were  Slavs  alike  ;  all  practised  the  same 
heathen  ritual ;  all  were  governed  by  the  same  traditions,  and 
spoke  almost  the  same  language.  Indeed,  the  affinities  of  the 
Russian  and  Polish  idioms,  between  which  the  dialects  of 
White  Russia,  of  Red  Russia,  and  of  Little  Russia  serve  as 
links,  sufficiently  demonstrate  an  original  brotherhood,  which 
the  strifes  of  churches  and  of  thrones  have  destroyed. 

The  Russian  Slavs,  before  taking  possession  of  all  the  do- 
main assigned  to  them  by  history,  had  to  struggle  in  the  north 
and  east  against  the  nations  belonging  to  three  principal  races, 
the  Jjetto-Lithuanians,  the  Finns,  and  the  Turks,  in  whom 
Finnish  and  Tatar  elements  were  more  or  less  mingled.  The 
Finns  and  the  Turks  belong  to  that  branch  of  the  human  fam- 
ily which  has  been  named,  from  its  twofold  cradle  of  the  Ural 
and  the  Altai,  Uralo-Altaic.  The  first  of  these  races  belongs 
to  the  Aryan  family,  but  is  nevertheless  distinct  from  the  Ger- 
manic or  Slav  races,  and  its  dialects  have  more  resemblance  to 
Sanskrit  than  any  other  European  tongue.  The  Zhmudi  and 
the  Lithuanians,  properly  so  called,  dwell  on  the  Niemen,  the 
latviagi  on  the  Naref.  On  the  western  shore  of  the  Gulf  of 
Riga  and  on  the  Baltic,  the  Korsu,  who  give  their  name  to  Kur- 
land,  are  to  be  found,  while  the  Semigals,  or  Zimegola,  inhabit 
the  left  bank  of  the  Dwina ;  and  the  Letgola,  from  whom  are 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGKAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  39 

descended,  by  a  mingling  with  the  Finnish  race  of  Livonians, 
the  Lettui,  or  Latitchi,  of  Southern  Livonia.  The  Livonians 
on  the  gulfs  of  Livonia  and  Finland,  and  the  Tchud-Esthonians, 
who  gave  their  name  to  Pei'pus,  the  Lake  of  the  Tchud,  be- 
long to  the  Finnish  race.  They  are  the  ancestors  of  the  pres- 
ent inhabitants  of  Northern  Livonia  and  Esthonia.  The  three 
so-called  German  provinces  of  the  Baltic  are  then  Lettish  in  the 
south,  Finnish  in  the  north.  The  Narova  were  established  on 
the  Narova,  which  is  a  territory  of  the  Pei'pus ;  the  Vodi,  be- 
tween the  Volkhof  and  the  sea,  in  a  country  called  by  the  Nov- 
gorodians,  Vodskai'a  Piatina ;  the  Ingrians,  or  Izhera,  on  the 
Izhora,  or  Ingra,  a  tributary  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Neva.  The 
Tchud-Esthonians  at  the  present  day  number  seven  hundred 
and  nineteen  thousand,  the  Livonians  two  thousand  five  hun- 
dred and  forty,  the  Vodi  five  thousand,  and  the  Ingrians  eigh- 
teen thousand. 

Finland,  or  Suomen-maa,  the  land  of  the  Suomi,  is  still  in- 
habited by  the  Suomi,  who  were  divided  into  three  tribes,  the 
lam,  or  Tavasts,  on  the  southeast,  round  larnburg  and  Tavas- 
tehus ;  the  Kvins,  or  Kai'ans,  on  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia ;  the 
Karelians,  who  were  more  numerous  than  the  two  other  na- 
tions put  together,  occupied  the  rest  of  Finland.  These  three 
peoples  at  present  amount  to  a  total  of  one  million  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand.  The  north  of  Finland  was  and  is 
inhabited  by  the  Laps,  or  Laplanders,  who  form  a  special 
division  of  the  Finnish  race,  and  reckon  in  Russia  about  four 
thousand  souls.  The  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  from  the 
Mezen  to  the  Yenissei,  have  been  always  occupied  by  the 
Samoyedui,  a  very  wide-spread  but  far  from  numerous  people, 
who  amount  in  Europe  to  about  five  thousand  souls.  In  the 
time  of  Nestor  the  Vesi  dwelt  on  the  Sheksna  and  the  White 
Lake;  the  Muromians,  whose  name  is  repeated  in  that  of 
Murom,  on  the  Oka  and  its  affluents,  the  Moskova  and  the 
Kliazma;  the  Meria,  on  the  Upper  Volga  around  the  Lake 
Kleshtchin  and  Lake  Nero  or  Rostof.  These  three  tribes 


40  HISTORY   OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

have  completely  disappeared,  having  been  absorbed  or  trans- 
formed by  the  Russian  colonization,  but  leave  behind  them 
innumerable  funeral  mounds.  Between  eighteen  hundred 
and  fifty-one  and  eighteen  hundred  and  fifty-four,  M.  Uvarof 
and  M.  Savelief  excavated  seven  thousand  seven  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  in  the  Merian  country  alone.  Besides  these 
monuments  and  the  remains  which  they  contain,  the  only 
traces  left  of  these  tribes  are  to  be  found  in  names  of  places, 
and  in  certain  peculiarities  of  the  local  dialects.  It  was 
around  their  territory  that  the  Muscovite  state  and  the  Rus- 
sian empire  were  formed.  The  Tchud-Zavolotchianie  were 
encamped  on  the  Lower  Dwina ;  the  Erzui,  or  Zyrians,  inhab- 
ited the  basin  of  the  Petchora ;  the  Permiane,  the  source  of 
the  Dwina  and  the  Kama ;  the  Votiaki,  or  Ari,  lived  on  the 
Viatka,  where  the  town  of  Viatka  still  preserves  their  name. 
These  races  form  what  is  called  the  Permian  branch  of  the 
Finnish  nation ;  their  country  was  named  by  the  Scandina- 
vians, Biarmia  or  Biarmaland,  and  "  Great  Perrnia "  by  the 
Muscovites.  Biarmaland  was  discovered  in  the  ninth  century 
by  the  Norwegian  navigator  Other,  who  not  long  afterwards 
entered  the  service  of  Alfred  the  Great,  King  of  England, 
and  has  left  in  Anglo-Saxon  an  account  of  his  travels.  This 
narrative  proves  that  the  Permians  were  then  a  civilized  peo- 
ple, who  traded  with  India  and  Persia.  The  temple  of  their 
god  lumala  was  so  richly  ornamented  with  precious  stones, 
that  its  brilliance  illuminated  all  the  surrounding  country. 
The  Erzi  number  at  the  present  day  only  eighty  thousand, 
the  Permians  seventy  thousand,  the  Votiaki  two  hundred  and 
thirty-four  thousand. 

The  Ugrian  branch  is  composed  first  of  the  Ostiaki,  amount- 
ing to  twenty  thousand,  and  of  the  Voguls,  amounting  to  seven 
thousand.  On  the  east  they  inhabit  the  Urals,  and  only  bor- 
der on  Europe.  Formerly  they  lived  more  to  the  south.  The 
Magyars,  who  made  Europe  tremble  in  the  tenth  century,  and 
founded  the  kingdom  of  Hungary,  belonged  to  this  race. 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGKAPHY  OF  EUSSIA.  41 

Between  the  Kama  and  the  Ural  were  already  to  be  found 
the  Bash-Kurts,  the  shaven -heads,  or  Bashkirs,  of  the  six- 
teenth to  the  eighteenth  centuries,  originally  a  Finnish  people, 
no  doubt  'of  the  Ugrian  branch,  but  profoundly  Tatarized, 
with  whom  were  mingled  the  Meshtchera,  a  tribe  named  by 
Nestor.  There  are  at  present  five  hundred  thousand  Bash- 
kirs, and  one  hundred  thousand  Meshtchera.  On  the  Mid- 
dle Volga  dwelt  the  Tcheremisa,  the  Tchuvashi,  and  the 
Mordva ;  the  Tcheremisa  are  found  again  to-day  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  Kazan,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  Viatka ;  the  Tchu- 
vashi in  Kazan,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  Simbirsk ;  the  Mordva 
in  Kazan,  Tambof,  Pensa,  Simbirsk,  Samara,  and  Saratof,  but 
these  are  now  only  small  islets  amid  the  Russian  colonization, 
whereas  in  the  time  of  Nestor  they  formed  a  compact  mass. 
The  Tcheremisa  now  number  only  one  hundred  and  sixty-five 
thousand,  the  Tchuvashi  four  hundred  and  thirty  thousand, 
and  the  Mordva  five  hundred  thousand ;  all  the  rest  have  be- 
come Russians,  except  a  few  who  have  become  Tatar. 

All  seems  strange  among  these  ancient  peoples.  The  type 
of  countenance  is  blurred  and,  as  it  were,  unfinished;  the 
costume  seems  to  have  been  adopted  from  some  antediluvian 
fashion ;  the  manners  and  superstitions  preserve  the  trace  of 
early  religions  beyond  the  date  of  any  known  forms  of  pagan- 
ism ;  the  language  is  sometimes  so  very  primitive  that  the 
Tchuvashi,  for  example,  do  not  possess  more  than  a  thousand 
original  words. 

The  Tcheremis  women  wear  on  their  breasts  two  plates 
forming  a  cuirass,  and  ornamented  with  pieces  of  silver,  trans- 
mitted from  generation  to  generation.  A  numismatist  would 
make  wonderful  discoveries  in  these  walking  museums  of 
medals.  They  drape  their  legs  in  a  piece  of  tightly  bound 
black  cloth,  and  think  that  modesty  consists  in  never  showing 
the  legs,  just  as  the  Tatar  women  make  a  point  of  never  un- 
veiling the  face. 

The  Tchuvash  women  cover  their  heads  with  a  little  peaked 


42  HISTORY  OF  ETJSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

cap  like  a  Saracen  helmet,  carry  on  their  backs  a  covering  of 
leather  and  metal  like  the  trapping  of  a  war-horse,  and  wear 
on  fete-days  a  stiff  and  rectangular  mantle  like  a  chasuble. 
Among  this  singular  people  "  black  "  and  "  beautiful "  are 
synonymous,  and  when  they  wish  to  revenge  themselves  they 
hang  themselves  at  their  enemy's  door. 

In  spite  of  three  centuries  of  Christian  missions,  these  tribes 
dwelling  in  the  heart  of  Russia  and  on  the  great  artery  of  the 
Volga  are  not  even  yet  complete  converts  to  Christianity. 

There  are  still  some  pagan  districts.  It  may  even  be  said 
that  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Tcheremisa,  Tchuvashi, 
Mordva,  and  Votiaki  remain  attached  to  the  worship  of  the 
ancient  deities,  which  they  sometimes  mingle  with  orthodox 
practices  and  the  worship  of  St.  Nicholas.  Their  religion 
consisted  essentially  in  dualism  :  the  good  principle  is  called 
by  the  Tchuvashi,  Thora ;  luma,  the  "  lumal "  of  the  Finns, 
by  the  Tcheremisa ;  Inma  by  the  Votiaki.  The  bad  principle 
was  named  Shaitan,  or  Satan.  Between  the  two  is  a  divinity 
whom  men  had  in  former  times  cruelly  offended,  who  is 
called  Keremet.  From  the  good  god  proceeded  an  infinity 
of  gods  and  goddesses ;  from  Keremet  a  numerous  progeny 
of  male  and  female  Keremets,  genii  more  mischievous  than 
malevolent,  to  whom  the  aborigines  offer  pieces  of  money,  and 
sacrifice  horses,  oxen,  sheep,  swans,  and  cocks  and  hens,  in 
sanctuaries  also  named  Keremet,  built  in  the  depths  of  the 
forests  and  far  from  Russian  spies. 

Human  sacrifices  have  been  talked  of.  The  worship  of  the 
dead  inspired  ideas  which  guide  the  savage  everywhere.  Men 
have  preserved  the  custom  of  wife-capture,  or  buying  brides 
from  the  fathers  by  paying  the  kalm ;  they  practise  agricultural 
communism.  In  a  word,  the  life  of  these  races  of  the  Volga 
in  the  nineteenth  century  is  the  living  commentary  of  the 
accounts  of  Nestor  of  the  Russian  Slavs  of  the  ninth  century. 

It  is  probable  that  Slavs  and  Russians  then  lived  in  an  ab- 
solutely identical  state  of  civilization,  and  had  almost  the  same 
religious  ideas  and  the  same  customs. 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  EUSSIA.  43 

There  remain  two  Finnish  peoples  still  to  be  spoken  of, 
who,  mentioned  by  Nestor,  have  at  present  disappeared,  but 
who  were  far  more  remarkable  than  any  of  the  preceding. 
These  are  the  Khazarui,  who,  although  mingled  with  Turkish 
elements,  were  essentially  Finnish.  Remarkable  for  their 
aptitude  for  civilization,  they  had  formed  in  the  ninth  century 
a  vast  empire,  which  embraced  the  regions  of  the  Lower 
Dnieper,  the  Don,  and  the  Lower  Volga,  round  the  Sea  of 
Azof  and  the  Caspian ;  they  had  built  Itil  on  the  Volga,  and 
.Sarkel,  or  the  White  City,  on  the  Don ;  they  had  sometimes 
governors  at  Bosporos  and  Kherson,  in  the  Taurid  peninsula ; 
in  the  Kuban  they  possessed  the  Tamatarchia  of  the  Greeks. 
They  had  commercial  and  friendly  relations  with  Byzantium, 
the  caliphate  of  Bagdad,  and  even  the  caliphate  of  Cordova, 
the  only  civilized  states  of  the  then  known  world.  The  Kha- 
zarui had  flourishing  schools,  and  tolerated  all  religions  besides 
the  national  paganism.  Mussulman  missionaries  appeared  in 
the  seventh,  Jewish  missionaries  in  the  eighth  century,  and 
Saint  Cyril  arrived  about  eight  hundred  and  sixty  at  the  court 
of  their  Shagan.  A  Jewish  Shagan  of  the  name  of  Joseph 
interchanged  some  curious  letters  with  the  Rabbi  Hasdai  of 
Cordova,  announcing  to  him  that  the  people  of  God,  the  Israel 
Khazar,  ruled  over  nine  nations  of  the  nineteen  of  the  Cau- 
casus, and  thirteen  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  that  he  did  not  allow 
the  Russians  to  descend  the  Volga  to  ravage  the  territory  of 
the  Caliph  of  Bagdad.  The  Israelitish  Khazarui  became  after- 
wards mingled  with  the  Kharaite  Jews,  and  the  Moslem  Kha- 
zarui with  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea.  Among  the  vassal 
nations  of  the  Khazarui  enumerated  by  the  Shagan  Joseph, 
were  the  Burtas  and  the  Bulgarui  of  the  Volga ;  the  latter, 
kinsmen  of  the  Bulgarui  who  were  subjected  by  the  Danubian 
Slavs,  and  apparently  nearly  related  to  the  Tchuvashi,  were  a 
mixture  of  Finnish,  Turkish,  and  even  Slav  elements,  accord- 
ing to  an  Arabian  account.  Sedentary,  industrious,  and  des- 
tined to  inherit  the  commercial  splendor  of  the  Khazarui,  they 


44  HISTORY  OF  BUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

blended  with  the  native  superstitions  the  Islamism  which  was 
preached  to  them  in  nine  hundred  and  twenty-two  by  mis- 
sionaries from  Bagdad,  and  possessed  in  the  tenth  century  a 
flourishing  state.  Their  capital  was  Bolgarui,  or  the  "  Great 
City,"  on  the  junction  of  the  Volga  and  the  Kama.  They  also 
owned  the  cities  of  Buliar,  or  Biliarsk,  Suvar,  Krementchug, 
and  others.  Their  descendants  were  fused  with  the  Tatar 
conquerors  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

The  Finnish  races,  even  more  than  the  Slavs,  are  the  real 
aborigines  of  Russia.  In  the  fifth  century  before  Christ  He- 
rodotus writes  of  them  as  already  long  possessed  of  the  soil. 
Everywhere  in  these  wide  regions  the  traces  of  their  occupa- 
tion are  visible.  At  different  periods  they  extended  from  the 
Livonian  Gulf  to  the  Urals,  and  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the 
Black  Sea.  They  withdrew  at  various  times,  especially  from 
the  fifth  to  the  ninth  centuries,  to  allow  the  passage  of  the 
great  migrations  and  of  the  great  invasions ;  but  in  the  tenth 
century  they  occupied,  with  the  Khazarui,  the  shores  of  the 
Sea  of  Azof  and  of  the  Caspian,  while  the  Finns  of  Esthonia 
held  the  Lithuanians  in  check. 

The  Turkish  races,  on  the  contrary,  made  their  appearance 
much  later  in  Russia.  In  the  ninth  century  the  Lower  Volga 
and  the  Lower  Ural  began  to  fall  a  prey  to  the  Petchenegi,  or 
Kangarui,  incorrigible  brigands,  who  marched  over  the  bodies 
of  the  Khazarui  to  establish  themselves  on  the  Lower  Dnieper. 
After  them  appeared  the  Polovtsui,  or  Komanui,  the  Uzi,  or 
Torki.  The  invasion  of  the  Tatars  was  more  Turkish  than 
Mongolian.  The  nomads  vanished  or,  according  to  Nestor, 
were  absorbed  by  new  arrivals,  namely,  the  Nogai's,  formed 
in  the  thirteenth  century  of  the  remnants  of  the  Polovtsui 
and  of  the  Turko-Kanglis,  at  present  numbering  fifty 
thousand ;  the  Kirghis,  who  entered  Europe  about  seven- 
teen hundred  and  twenty-one,  and  to-day  amount  to  about 
eighty-two  thousand  souls ;  the  Kalmuiki,  who  are  Mongols, 
not  Turks,  belong  to  the  (Eleutes,  or  Western  Mongols,  in- 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  45 

vaders  of  Russia  in  sixteen  hundred  and  thirty-six,  num- 
ber eighty-seven  thousand  in  the  provinces  of  Astrakhan, 
Stavropol,  and  the  Don,  and  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Chris- 
tians and  Mussulmans  have  remained  Lamaists.  As  to  the 
Tatars,  properly  so  called,  or  sedentary  Turks,  more  or  less  a 
mixture  of  Finnish  and  Mongol  elements,  who  inhabit  the 
governments  of  the  Volga,  Kazan,  and  Astrakhan,  as  well  as 
those  of  Stavropol  and  the  Crimea,  they  number  altogether 
about  one  million  four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  souls. 


DIVISION    OF    THE     RUSSIANS    OF    TO-DAY    INTO    THREE 
BRANCHES.  — HOW  RUSSIA  WAS   COLONIZED. 

At  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  in  the  time  of  Nestor, 
the  Russian  Slavs,  confined  between  the  Lithuanians  on  the 
west,  the  Finns  on  the  north,  and  the  Turks  on  the  east,  occu- 
pied barely  one  fifth  part  of  Russia  in  Europe.  To-day  we 
see  the  Russian  race  extend  from  Finland  to  the  Ural,  from 
the  Arctic  Ocean  to  the  Caucasus  and  Crimea,  amounting  to 
fifty-six  millions  of  men,  besides  three  million  colonists  in  the 
Asiatic  provinces.  The  Letto-Lithuanians,  on  the  contrary,  are 
reduced  to  two  million  four  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
souls  ;  the  Finns,  including  the  inhabitants  of  Finland,  to  less 
than  four  millions ;  and  the  Turko-Tatars  to  less  than  two 
millions.  The  Russians  form  six  sevenths  of  the  population  of 
Russia.  The  proportions  are  more  than  reversed.  What  a 
change  has  been  wrought  in  ten  centuries !  The  present 
Russians  may  be  divided  into  three  branches,  deriving  their 
names  from  certain  historical  circumstances. 

The  name  of  White  Russia  is  given  to  the  provinces  con- 
quered from  the  thirteenth  to  the  fourteenth  century  by  the 
Grand  Dukes  of  Lithuania.  These  were  the  ancient  territo- 
ries of  the  Krivitchi,  Polotchane,  Dregovitchi,  and  Drevliane, 
now  forming  the  governments  of  Vitepsk,  Mohilef,  and  Minsk. 
The  governments  of  Kovno,  Grodno,  and  Vilna,  at  present 


46  HISTOEY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

unequally  Russified,  were  originally  Lithuanian.  The  Lithu- 
anian territories  of  Grodno,  Novogrodek,  and  Bielostok  were 
sometimes  called  Black  Russia. 

Little  Russia  includes  the  country  of  the  ancient  Severiane 
and  Poliane  increased  by  colonies  ;  that  is,  the  governments  of 
Kief,  Tchernigof,  Poltava,  Kharkof,  Volhynia,  and  Podolia, 
It  even  extends  beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  into  Red 
Russia,  or  Old  Gallicia,  including  the  towns  of  Galitch,  laro- 
slavl,  Terebovl,  Zvenigorod,  Lemberg,  or  Lvof,  belonging  to 
Austria,  and  peopled  by  three  millions  of  Ruthenians  or  Rus- 
sians. 

Great  Russia  grouped  around  the  ancient  Muscovy,  occu- 
pying the  place  held  in  the  ninth  century  by  many  Turk- 
ish or  Finnish  tribes.  To  Great  Russia  belong  Northern 
Russia  with  Arkhangel ;  Eastern  Russia,  including  the  Volga, 
Kazan,  Astrakhan ;  and  New  Russia,  or  South  Russia,  with 
Kherson,  Ekaterinoslaf,  Kharkof,  Odessa,  and  the  Crimea. 
Great  Russia,  as  a  whole,  except  Novgorod  and  Pskof,  was  won 
from  foreign  races  by  Russian  colonization.  It  was  a  colony 
of  Kievan  Russia,  and,  though  for  a  time  subjugated  by  the 
Tatars,  was  able  to  shake  off  their  yoke,  while  Kief  still  re- 
mained a  Lithuanian  province.  It  continued  to  extend  its 
conquests  in  the  east ;  then,  turning  to  the  west  in  the  sev- 
enteenth and  eighteenth  centuries,  succeeded  in  recovering 
White  Russia  and  Little  Russia. 

In  the  empire  the  White  Russians  number  three  millions, 
the  Little  Russians  twelve  millions,  and  the  Great  Russians 
forty-one  millions.  There  are  dialectical  differences  between 
the  idioms  of  these  three  families,  which  historical  and  liter- 
ary influences  easily  explain.  Some  writers  have  been  anx- 
ious to  establish  the  existence  of  a  profound  difference  between 
Great  Russia  and  its  two  neighbors.  They  have  reserved  the 
name  of  Russians  and  the  character  of  Slavs  for  the  White 
Russians  and  the  Little  Russians,  and  have  pretended  to  see 
in  the  "Muscovites"  nothing  but  descendants  of  Finns,  Turks, 


GREAT    RUSSIAN    TYPES. 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY   OF  RUSSIA.  47 

and  Tatars,  in  a  word,  Turanians,  Russian  only  in  language. 
The  Muscovite  Empire,  founded  in  the  midst  of  Ves,  of  Mu- 
roma,  and  of  Meria,  extended  at  the  expense  of  the  Tchuvashi, 
the  Mordva,  Tatars,  and  Kirghiz,  with  its  two  capitals,  Mos- 
cow and  St.  Petersburg,  in  the  Tchud  region,  is  not  even  a 
European  state,  if  these  writers  are  to  be  trusted.  A  more 
careful  study  shows  us  that  Muscovy  was  formed  in  the  first 
place  by  the  migrations  of  Russian  colonists,  in  the  second 
place  by  the  assimilation  of  certain  foreign  races.  When 
the  steppes  of  the  south  became  the  prey  of  Asiatic  nomads, 
the  Russian  population  flowed  back  in  a  vast  wave,  from  the 
banks  of  the  Dnieper  to  the  Upper  and  Middle  Volga.  We 
see  the  princes  of  Suzdal  calling  to  their  aid  the  inhabitants 
of  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper,  while  in  the  forests  of  the  north 
new  cities  are  constantly  founded  by  the  people  of  Novgorod. 
The  Russia  of  Kief  once  destroyed,  a  new  Russia  begins  to 
form  itself,  almost  out  of  the  same  elements,  at  the  opposite 
extremity  of  the  Oriental  plain.  The  names  given  to  the  new 
towns  of  Suzdal  and  Muscovy  must  be  noticed.  There  is  a 
Vladimir  on  the  Kliazma  as  there  is  a  Vladimir  in  Volhynia, 
a  Zvenigorod  on  the  Moskova  as  on  the  Dniester,  a  Galitch  in 
Suzdal  as  in  Gallicia,  a  laroslavl  on  the  Volga  as  on  the  San. 
Suzdal  and  Riazan,  like  Kief,  have  their  Pereiaslavl ;  that  of 
the  former  bears  the  title  of  Zalieski,  or  "  beyond  the  forests." 
In  a  different  land,  and  under  another  sky,  the  emigrants  clearly 
tried  to  restore  the  name,  if  they  could  not  find  the  image,  of 
their  native  country.  Is  it  not  thus  that  in  America  the  Dutch 
founded  New  York,  and  the  French  New  Orleans  ?  More- 
over, when  we  have  seen  a  population  of  three  million  Russians 
gather  in  the  Caucasus  and  in  Siberia,  —  when  we  see  that 
the  steppes  of  the  south  which  were  deserts  in  the  time  of 
Catherine  the  Second  reckon  to-day  their  five  or  six  million 
inhabitants, — it  is  easy  to  understand  how,  at  a  more  distant 
epoch,  the  basin  of  the  Volga  was  colonized.  As  for  saying 
that  the  inhabitants  of  New  Russia  are  nothing  but  Finns  and 


48  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

Russified  Turks,  one  might  as  well  pretend  that  the  thirty  or 
forty  millions  of  North  America  are  Red-skins  who  have  learnt 
English  and  embraced  Protestantism. 

We  must  recognize  that  the  Russian,  almost  as  much 
as  the  Anglo-Saxon,  has  the  instinct  which  drives  men  to 
emigrate  and  found  colonies.  The  Russians  do  in  the  far 
East  of  Europe  what  the  Anglo-Saxons  do  in  the  far  West  of 
America.  They  belong  to  one  of  the  great  races  of  pioneers 
and  backwoodsmen.  All  the  history  of  the  Russian  people, 
from  the  foundation  of  Moscow,  is  that  of  their  advance  into 
the  forest,  into  the  Black  Land,  into  the  prairie.  The  Rus- 
sian has  his  trappers  and  settlers  in  the  Cossacks  of  the 
Dnieper,  Don,  and  Terek  ;  in  the  tireless  fur-hunters  of  Sibe- 
ria ;  in  the  gold-diggers  of  the  Ural  and  the  Altai ;  in  the 
adventurous  monks  who  ever  lead  the  way,  founding  in  re- 
gions always  more  distant,  a  monastery  which  is  to  be  the 
centre  of  a  town  ;  lastly,  in  the  Raskolniki,  or  Dissenters,  Rus- 
sian Puritans  or  Mormons,  who  are  persecuted  by  laws  human 
and  divine,  and  seek  from  forest  to  forest  the  Jerusalem  of  their 
dreams.  The  level  plains  of  Russia  naturally  tempted  men  to 
migration.  The  mountain  keeps  her  own,  the  mountain  calls 
her  wanderers  to  return  ;  while  the  steppe,  stretching  away  to 
the  dimmest  horizon,  invites  you  to  advance,  to  ride  at  adven- 
ture, to  "  go  where  the  eyes  glance." 

The  flat  and  monotonous  soil  has  no  hold  on  its  inhabitants  ; 
they  will  find  as  bare  a  landscape  anywhere.  As  for  their 
hovel,  how  can  they  care  for  that,  —  it  is  burned  down  so  often  ? 
The  Western  expression,  the  "  ancestral  roof,"  has  no  meaning 
for  the  Russian  peasant.  The  native  of  Great  Russia,  accus- 
tomed to  live  on  little,  and  ehdure  the  extremes  of  heat  and 
cold,  was  born  to  brave  the  dangers  and  privations  of  the  emi- 
grant's life.  With  his  crucifix,  his  axe  in  his  belt,  and  his 
boots  slung  behind  his  back,  he  will  go  to  the  end  of  the 
Eastern  world.  However  weak  may  be  the  infusion  of  the 
Russian  element  in  an  Asiatic  population,  it  cannot  transmute 
itself  nor  disappear,  —  it  must  become  the  dominant  power. 


CHAP.  II.]  ETHNOGRAPHY  OF  RUSSIA.  49 

History  has  helped  to  make  this  movement  irresistible. 
When  the  Russian  took  refuge  in  Suzdal,  he  was  compelled 
to  clear  and  cultivate  the  very  worst  land  of  his  future  domain, 
for  the  Black  Land  was  then  overrun  by  nomads.  How  could 
he  escape  the  temptation  to  go  and  look  in  the  south  for  more 
fertile  soil  which  without  labor  or  manure  would  yield  four 
times  as  great  a  harvest?  Villages  and  whole  cantons  in 
Muscovy  have  been  known  to  empty  themselves  in  a  moment, 
the  peasants  marching  in  a  body,  as  in  the  old  times  of  the 
invasions,  towards  the  "  Black  Soil,"  the  "Warm  Soil"  of  the 
south.  Government  and  the  landholders  were  obliged  to  use 
the  most  terrible  means  to  stop  these  migrations  of  the  hus- 
bandmen. Without  these  repressive  measures  the  steppes 
would  have  been  colonized  two  centuries  earlier  than  they 
actually  were.  The  report  that  the  Tsar  authorized  emigra- 
tion, —  a  forged  ukas,  a  rumor,  —  anything  was  enough  to 
uproot  whole  peoples  from  the  soil.  The  peasant's  passion 
for  wandering  explains  the  development  of  Cossack  life  in 
the  plains  of  the  south ;  it  explains  the  legislation  which  from 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  chained  the  serf  to  the 
glebe  and  bound  him  to  the  soil.  In  the  thirteenth  century, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  peasant  was  free.  His  prince  encouraged 
him  to  emigrate,  and  hence  came  the  colonization  of  Eastern 
Russia. 

The  Russian  race,  it  is  true,  has  the  faculty  of  absorbing  cer- 
tain aboriginal  stocks.  The  Little  Russians  assimilated  the  rem- 
nants of  Turkish  tribes,  the  Great  Russians  swallowed  up  the 
Finnish  nations  of  the  East.  There  must,  however,  be  no  relig- 
ious barrier  between  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered,  for  the 
Tchud,  while  still  heathen,  is  easily  assimilated  ;  but  once  con- 
verted to  Islamism,  he  is  a  refractory  element  that  can  scarcely 
be  brought  to  order.  A  baptized  Tchuvash  inevitably  becomes 
a  Russian,  a  circumcised  Tchuvash  inevitably  becomes  a  Tatar. 
We  have  seen  the  Ves,  the  Muroma,  the  Meria,  disappear  with- 
out leaving  a  trace ;  the  Tchuvashi,  the  Mordva,  the  Tcheremisa, 


VOL.    I. 


50  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  II. 

become  more  Russian  every  day.  The  successive  stages,  and 
the  steps  which  lead  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  change,  were 
lately  observed  by  Mr.  Wallace,  an  English  traveller  :  — 

"  During  my  wanderings  in  these  northern  provinces  I  have 
found  villages  in  every  stage  of  Russification.  In  one  every- 
thing seemed  thoroughly  Finnish  :  the  inhabitants  had  a  red- 
dish-olive skin,  very  high  cheek-bones,  obliquely  set  eyes,  and 
a  peculiar  costume ;  none  of  the  women  and  very  few  of  the 
men  could  understand  Russian,  and  any  Russian  who  visited 
the  place  was  regarded  as  a  foreigner.  In  a  second  there 
were  already  some  Russian  inhabitants ;  the  others  had  lost 
something  of  their  pure  Finnish  type,  many  of  the  men  had 
discarded  the  old  costume  and  spoke  Russian  fluently,  and  a 
Russian  visitor  was  no  longer  shunned.  In  a  third  the  Fin- 
nish type  was  still  further  weakened ;  all  the  men  spoke 
Russian,  and  nearly  all  the  women  understood  it;  the  old 
male  costume  had  entirely  disappeared,  and  the  old  female 
costume  was  rapidly  following  it,  and  the  intermarriage  with 
the  Russian  population  was  no  longer  rare.  In  a  fourth  in- 
termarriage had  almost  completely  done  its  work,  and  the  old 
Finnish  element  could  be  detected  merely  in  certain  peculiari- 
ties of  physiognomy  and  accent." 

The  density  and  resisting  power  of  these  ancient  peoples, 
scattered  over  such  immense  spaces  of  the  continent,  must 
have  been  comparatively  slight,  while  the  Russian  emigrants 
came  on  in  vast  waves,  or  stole  in  like  the  constant  rise  of  the 
tide.  The  aboriginals  must  often  have  recoiled  and  concen- 
trated their  forces,  thus  leaving  room  and  verge  for  the  pure 
Slavonic  element.  The  more  or  less  considerable  mixture  of 
races,  on  the  other  hand,  cannot  but  have  influenced  the  physi- 
cal type,  character,  and  powers  of  the  Great  Russian  in  a  pe- 
culiar way.  The  bright  Slavonic  nature,  when  blended  with 
tribes  of  a  duller  cast,  gained  in  strength  and  weight  what  it 
lost  in  vivacity.  Hence,  of  all  the  Slavonic  peoples,  the  Great 
Russian  alone  has  been  able  to  create  and  to  maintain,  in  face 
of  every  obstacle,  a  vast  and  durable  empire. 


CHAPTER  III. 

PRIMITIVE   RUSSIA:    THE  SLAVS. 

RELIGION  OF  THE  SLAVS.  —  FUNERAL  RITES.  —  DOMESTIC  AND  POLITICAL 
CUSTOMS:  THE  FAMILY;  THE  MIR,  OR  COMMUNE;  THE  VOLOST,  OR 
CANTON;  THE  TRIBE.  —  TOWNS.  —  INDUSTRY.  —  AGRICULTURE. 


RELIGION  OF  THE  SLAVS.  —  FUNERAL  RITES. 

THE  religion  of  the  Russian  Slavs,  like  that  of  all  Aryan 
races,  was  founded  on  nature  and  its  phenomena.  It  was 
a  pantheism  which,  as  its  original  meaning  was  lost,  necessa- 
rily became  a  polytheism.  Just  as  the  Homeric  deities  were 
preceded  by  the  gods  of  Hesiod,  Ouranos  and  Demeter,  or 
Heaven  and  Earth,  so  the  most  ancient  gods  of  the  Russian 
Slavs  seem  to  have  been  Svarog,  the  heaven,  and  "  our  mother, 
the  dank  earth."  Then  new  conceptions  appeared  in  the  fore- 
ground in  the  historic  period.  Ancient  poets  and  chroniclers, 
the  Song  of  Igor,  and  Nestor,  have  preserved  to  us  the  names 
of  Dazh-Bog,  god  of  the  sun,  father  of  nature ;  Volos,  a  solar 
deity,  and,  like  the  Greek  Apollo,  inspirer  of  poets  and  pro- 
tector of  flocks ;  Perun,  god  of  thunder,  another  personifica- 
tion of  the  Sun  at  war  witli  the  Cloud ;  Stribog,  the  Russian 
^Eolus,  father  of  winds,  protector  of  warriors  ;  Khors,  a  solar 
god ;  Semargl  and  Mokosh,  whose  attributes  are  unknown. 
In  some  of  the  early  hymns  they  sing  of  Kupalo  or  larilo, 
god  of  the  summer  sun,  and  Did-Lado,  goddess  of  fecundity. 
In  the  epic  songs  are  celebrated  Sviatogor,  the  giant-hero, 
whose  weight  the  earth  can  scarcely  bear  ;  Mikula  Selianino- 
vitch,  the  good  laborer,  a  kind  of  Slav  Triptolemus,  the  divine 


52  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  III. 

personification  of  the  race's  passionate  love  of  agriculture, 
striking  with  the  iron  share  of  his  plough  the  stones  of  the 
furrow,  with  a  noise  that  is  heard  three  days'  journey  off; 
Volga  Yseslavitch,  a  Proteus  who  can  take  all  manner  of 
shapes;  Polkan,  a  centaur;  Dunai',  Don  Ivanovitch,  Dnieper 
Korolevitch,  who  are  rivers  ;  then  a  series  of  heroes,  conquer- 
ors of  dragons  like  Ilia  of  Murom,  who  seem  to  be  solar  gods 
degraded  to  the  rank  of  paladins.  In  the  stories  which  be- 
guile the  village  evening  assemblies,  appear  Morena,  goddess 
of  death  ;  Koshtchei  and  Moroz,  personifications  of  the  bitter 
winter  weather ;  Baba-Yaga,  an  ogress  who  lives  on  the  edge 
of  the  forest,  in  a  hut  built  so  as  to  turn  with  the  wind  like  a 
weathercock ;  and  the  King  of  the  Sea,  who  entices  sailors  to 
his  watery  palaces.  Popular  superstition  continues  to  people 
nature  with  good  and  bad  spirits  :  the  Rusalki,  water  sprites  ; 
Vodiano'i,  river  genii ;  the  Lieshii  and  the  Liesnik,  forest 
demons ;  the  Domovo'i,  the  brownie  of  the  domestic  hearth ; 
and  the  Vampires,  ghosts  who  steal  by  night  from  their 
tombs,  and  suck  the  blood  of  the  living  during  their  sleep. 

Since  Mythology  reproduces  under  so  many  forms  the 
struggle  of  the  heroes  of  the  light  with  the  monsters  of 
darkness,  it  is  possible  that  it  admitted  a  bad  principle  at 
variance  with  a  good  principle,  a  malicious  god,  of  whom  Mo- 
rena, Koshtchei,  Baba-Yaga,  the  dragon,  the  mountain-serpent, 
are  only  types.  We  cannot  find  any  positive  confirmation  of 
this  hypothesis,  as  far  as  the  Russian  Slavs  are  concerned,  but 
Helmold  asserts  that  the  Baltic  Slays  recognize  Bieli-Bog,  the 
White  God,  and  Tcherno-Bog,  the  Black  God. 

The  Russians  seem  to  have  had  neither  temples  nor  priests 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word.  They  erected  rude  idols  on 
the  hills,  and  venerated  the  oak  consecrated  to  Perun ;  the 
leaders  of  the  people  offered  the  sacrifices.  They  also  had  sor- 
cerers, or  magicians,  analogous  to  the  Tatar  Shamans,  whose 
counsels  appear  to  have  had  great  weight. 

It  has  been  the  study  of  the  Russian  church  to  combat 


TATAR   SHAMANS. 


CHAP.  III.]         PRIMITIVE    RUSSIA :  THE   SLAVS.  53 

paganism  by  purifying  the  superstitions  it  cannot  uproot.  It 
has  turned  to  account  any  similarity  in  names  or  symbols. 
It  has  been  able  to  honor  Saint  Dmitri  and  Saint  Juri,  the 
slayers  of  dragons  ;  Saint  John,  who  thunders  in  the  spring  ; 
Saint  Elias,  who  recalls  Ilia  of  Murom  ;  Saint  Blaise,  or  Vlaise, 
who  has  succeeded  to  Volos  as  guardian  of  the  flocks  ;  Saint 
Nikolai,  or  Mikula,  patron  of  laborers,  like  Mikula  Seliani- 
novitch ;  Saint  Kozma,  or  Kuzma,  protector  of  blacksmiths, 
who  has  taken  the  place  of  Kuznets,  the  mysterious  black- 
smith in  the  mountains  of  the  north,  the  forger  of  the  des- 
tinies of  man.  In  some  popular  songs  the  Virgin  Mary 
replaces  Did-Lado,  and  then  Saint  John  succeeds  to  Perun 
or  larilo.  Who  can  fail  to  recognize  the  myth  of  the  spring 
and  the  fruitful  rains  accompanied  by  thunder,  in  this  White 
Russian  song  that  is  repeated  at  the  festival  of  Saint  John  ? 
"  John  and  Mary  —  bathed  on  the  hill,  —  while  John  bathed 
—  the  earth  shook,  —  while  Mary  bathed  —  the  earth  germi- 
nated." The  Church  took  care  to  consecrate  to  the  Saints  of 
its  calendar  or  to  purify  by  holy  rites  the  sacred  trees  and 
mysterious  wells  to  which  crowds  of  pilgrims  continued  to 
flock. 

Russian  Slavs  certainly  had  visions  of  another  life,  but,  like 
all  primitive  peoples,  they  looked  forward  to  a  life  which  was 
gross  and  material.  In  the  seventh  century  among  the  Vends, 
German  Slavs,  women  refused  to  survive  their  husbands,  and 
burned  themselves  on  their  funeral  pile.  This  ancient  Aryan 
custom  must  have  been  in  vigor  among  the  Russian  Slavs  at 
an  equally  early  epoch.  The  Arabic  writer,  Ibn-Eoszlan,  gives 
an  account  of  the  Russian  funeral  rites  which  he  himself  wit- 
nessed in  the  ninth  century.  Tor  ten  days  the  friends  of  the 
deceased  bewailed  him,  and  intoxicated  themselves  over  his 
corpse.  Then  the  men-servants  were  asked  which  of  them 
would  be  buried  with  his  master.  One  of  them  replied  in 
the  affirmative,  and  was  instantly  strangled.  The  same  ques- 
tion was  also  put  to  the  women-servants,  one  of  whom  like- 


54  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  III. 

wise  devoted  herself.  She  was  then  washed,  adorned,  and 
treated  like  a  princess,  and  did  nothing  but  drink  and  sing. 
On  the  appointed  day  the  dead  man  was  laid  in  a  boat,  with 
part  of  his  arms  and  his  garments.  The  man-servant  was 
slain  with  the  favorite  horse  and  other  domestic  animals,  and 
was  laid  in  the  boat,  to  which  the  young  girl  was  then  led. 
She  took  off  her  jewels,  and  with  a  glass  of  kvas  in  her  hand 
sang  a  song  that  she  would  only  too  willingly  have  prolonged. 
"  All  at  once,"  says  the  eyewitness,  "  the  old  woman  who 
accompanied  her,  and  whom  they  called  the  angel  of  death, 
ordered  her  to  drink  quickly,  and  to  enter  into  the  cabin 
of  the  boat,  where  lay  the  dead  body  of  her  master.  At 
these  words  she  changed  color,  and,  as  she  made  some  diffi- 
culties about  entering,  the  old  woman  seized  her  by  the  hair, 
dragged  her  in,  and  entered  with  her.  The  men  immediately 
began  to  beat  their  shields  with  clubs,  to  prevent  the  other 
girls  from  hearing  the  cries  of  their  companion,  which  might 
prevent  them  from  one  day  dying  for  their  masters."  While 
the  funeral  pile  was  blazing,  one  of  the  Russians  said  to  our 
narrator,  "  You  Arabs  are  fools ;  you  hide  in  the  earth  the 
man  you  have  loved  best,  and  there  he  becomes  the  prey  of 
worms.  We,  on  the  contrary,  burn  him  up  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye,  that  he  may  the  quicker  enter  paradise."  Nestor 
asserts  that  the  same  rite  prevailed  among  the  Russian  Slavs. 
The  excavations  made  in  a  great  number  of  barrows  or  fu- 
neral mounds  confirm  his  testimony.  The  discoveries  recently 
made  in  the  tombs  of  Novgorod  by  M.  Ivanovski  prove  that 
the  Slavs  of  Ilmen  had  preserved  or  adopted  the  custom  of 
burying  their  dead.  In  these  tombs  are  found  a  great  quan- 
tity of  arms,  instruments,  jewels,  animals,  bones,  and  grains  of 
wheat ;  from  which  we  may  conclude  that  the  Russian  Slavs 
expected  the  future  life  to  be  an  exact  continuation  of  the 
present  one,  and  that  they  surrounded  the  dead  with  all  the 
objects  that  here  contributed  to  his  happiness.  The  examina- 
tion of  the  human  bones  preserved  in  the  barrows  also  con- 


CHAP.  III.]          PRIMITIVE  RUSSIA :  THE   SLAVS.  55 

firms  the  historical  accounts,  and  proves  that  servants  and 
female  slaves  were  sacrificed  over  the  corpse. 


DOMESTIC  AND  POLITICAL  CUSTOMS:  THE  FAMILY;  THE 
MIR,  OR  COMMUNE;  THE  VOLOST,  OR  CANTON;  THE 
TRIBE. 

The  Slav  family  was  founded  on  the  patriarchal  principle. 
The  father  was  the  absolute  head,  and  after  his  death  the 
power  passed  to  the  eldest  of  the  members  composing  it ; 
first,  to  the  brothers  of  the  deceased,  if  he  had  any  under  his 
care,  then  successively  to  his  sons,  beginning  with  the  eldest. 
The  chief  had  the  same  rights  over  the  women  who  entered 
his  family  by  marriage  as  over  its  natural  members. 

Their  domestic  manners  seem  to  have  been  very  barbarous. 
Nevertheless  the  monk  Nestor  may  be  suspected  of  exagger- 
ation wherever  he  describes  the  condition  of  pagan  Russia, 
which  baptism  was  to  regenerate.  There  is  no  exception  to 
this  exaggerated  censure,  but  in  the  case  of  the  Polians,  whose 
good  qualities  he  extols.  "  The  Drevliane,"  he  tells  us,  "  lived 
after  the  manner  of  wild  beasts.  They  cut  each  other's  throats, 
ate  impure  food,  declined  all  marriage-ties ;  they  ravished  and 

stole  young  girls  who  came  for  water  to  the  fountains 

The  Radimitchi,  the  Viatitchi,  the  Severiane,  lived  like  wild 
animals  in  the  forests,  were  fed  on  all  sorts  of  filth,  and  spoke 
of  all  kinds  of  shameful  things  in  the  presence  of  their  sisters- 
in-law  and  relatives They  captured  women,  who  were 

willing  parties  to  the  transaction,  and  often  they  would  take 
two  or  three  at  a  time." 

The  charges  which  Nestor  chiefly  urges  against  the  Slavs 
are  the  capture  of  women  and  polygamy.  This  latter  charge 
is  completely  established ;  as  to  the  capture,  it  might  be  sym- 
bolical. In  the  text  quoted  above  we  see  the  women  "  came  " 
to  the  fountain,  and  that  they  were  parties  to  the  transaction. 
This  capture,  if  we  take  it  for  a  simple  ceremony,  may  imply, 


56  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  III. 

in  very  early  times,  the  existence  of  abduction  by  violence. 
To-day  the  marriage-customs  of  Russia  still  preserve  traces  of 
these  ancient  usages.  There  is  still  a  pretended  capture  of 
the  woman ;  a  custom  to  be  found  in  the  Germany  of  the 
eighth  century,  where  the  very  name  of  marriage  has  a 
pointed  signification,  —  Brauttauft,  the  flight  of  the  bride. 
The  songs  at  Russian  weddings  also  imply  the  existence  of  a 
time  when  the  maiden  was  bought.  One  of  these  songs 
accuses  the  kindred  of  avarice :  "  Thy  brother  —  the  accursed 
Tatar  —  has  sold  his  sister  for  a  piece  of  silver." 

Some  historians  have  thought,  with  Karamsin,  that  the 
Slavs  held  .women  in  less  consideration  than  the  Germans  did, 
and  in  fact  "  treated  them  as  slaves."  We  may  doubt  if  there 
was  so  great  a  difference  between  the  two  nations.  The 
chronicles  speak  of  Luibed,  sister  of  Kii,  the  fabulous  founder 
of  Kief,  dividing  her  paternal  inheritance  with  her  brothers, 
and  of  Princess  Olga  becoming  heir  and  avenger  of  her  hus- 
band and  guardian  of  his  son.  The  epic  songs  show  us  many 
bold  heroines  side  by  side  with  the  heroes  of  the  Kievan  cycle, 
and  mothers  of  heroes  surrounded  with  wonderful  luxury  and 
extraordinary  honors.  The  excavations  of  the  barrows  show 
us  skeletons  of  women  richly  ornamented  with  jewels. 

The  commune,  or  mir,  was  only  the  expansion  of  the 
family ;  it  was  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  elders  of  each 
household,  who  assembled  in  a  council,  or  vetchL  The  village 
lands  were  held  in  common  by  all  the  members  of  the  associ- 
ation ;  the  individual  possessed  only  his  harvest,  and  the  dvor, 
or  enclosure,  immediately  surrounding  his  house.  This  prim- 
itive condition  of  property,  existing  in  Russia  up  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  was  once  common  to  all  European  peoples. 

The  communes  nearest  together  formed  a  group  called 
volost  or  pagost,  the  canton  or  parish.  The  volost  was  gov- 
erned by  a  council  formed  of  the  elders  of  the  communes  :  one 
of  these  elders,  either  by  hereditary  right,  age,  or  election,  was 
recognized  as  more  powerful  than  the  rest,  and  became  chief 


CHAP.  Ill]  PRIMITIVE  EUSSIA :   THE   SLAVS.  57 

of  the  canton.  His  authority  seems  much  to  have  resembled 
that  of  Ulysses  over  the  numerous  kings  of  little  Ithaca.  In 
times  of  danger  the  cantons  of  the  same  tribe  could  elect  a 
temporary  head,  but  they  refused  to  submit  to  a  general  and 
permanent  ruler.  The  Emperor  Maurice  had  already  observed 
that  passion  for  liberty  among  the  Slavs  which  made  them 
detest  all  sovereignty.  The  Russian  Slavs  easily  rose  from 
the  idea  of  a  commune  to  that  of  a  canton,  with  a  chief  chosen 
from  the  elders  of  the  families ;  in  an  emergency  they  might 
permit  a  temporary  confederation  of  all  the  cantons  of  one 
tribe,  but  we  never  find  that  there  was  a  prince  of  the  Severi- 
ane,  Poliane,  or  Radimitchi.  The  idea  of  tribal  unity  was 
absolutely  foreign  to  this  race,  and  still  more  foreign  was  the 
idea  of  the  unity  of  the  Russian  nation.  The  ideas  of  govern- 
ment and  of  the  state  had  to  come  to  them  from  without. 


TOWNS.  —INDUSTRY.  —  AGEJCULTUKE. 

Nestor  declares  that  the  Russian  Slavs,  for  the  most  part, 
"  lived  in  forests  like  the  wild  beasts."  Karamsin  and  Schloe- 
zer  have  concluded  from  this  that  they  had  no  towns.  But 
there  exist  a  number  of  monuments  in  Russia  which  have  lon^ 

O 

puzzled  archaeologists.  These  are  enclosures  formed  by  the 
earth  being  thrown  up  like  ruined  fortifications,  and  such  are 
found  invariably  on  the  steep  bank  of  a  watercourse  or  on  a 
small  hill.  M.  Samokvasof,  who  has  explored  this  very  coun- 
try of  the  Severiane,  who  according  to  Nestor  lived  entirely  in 
forests,  has  been  able  to  prove  that  these  mounds  are  the  re- 
mains of  the  primitive  towns  of  Russia.  In  the  government 
of  Tchernigof  alone,  M.  Samokvasof  has  counted  one  hundred 
and  sixty ;  in  that  of  Kursk,  fifty.  We  may  calculate  from  this 
that  there  are  thousands  of  them  in  Russia,  and  that  every  can- 
ton had  at  least  one.  About  these  earth  enclosures,  which 
were  capped  by  wooden  palisades  or  hedges  of  osier,  and 
were  the  common  means  of  defence  for  each  group  of  fami- 


58  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  III. 

lies,  we  usually  find  grouped,  as  in  a  cemetery,  the  funeral 
mounds. 

The  excavations  made,  either  in  the  barrows  or  in  the  soil 
of  these  village  mounds,  have  shown  us  the  Slavs  were  more 
civilized  than  Nestor  supposed.  Vessels  of  pottery,  tolera- 
bly well  designed,  iron  and  bronze,  gold  and  silver  objects, 
glass,  false  pearls,  and  bells  prove  that  they  had  a  certain 
amount  of  trade,  and  a  fairly  extensive  commerce,  particularly 
with  Asia.  Oriental  coins  have  been  dug  up,  dating  from  six 
hundred  and  ninety-nine,  or  near  two  hundred  years  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Variagi,  or  Varangians.  There  are  a  great 
number  of  these  coins  in  the  country.  Near  Novgorod  a  vase 
was  discovered,  containing  about  seven  thousand  rubles'  worth 
of  this  early  money.  The  fame  of  the  swords  made  by  the 
Russian  Slavs  extended  to  Arabia.  Nestor  relates  that  the 
Khazarui  imposed  a  tribute  of  swords  on  the  Poliane.  When 
the  latter  brought  the  arms  to  the  Khazarui,  they  were  afraid, 
and  said  to  their  princes,  "  Our  swords  have  only  one  edge,  — 
these  have  two.  We  tremble  lest  one  day  this  people  should 
levy  a  tribute  on  us  and  other  tribes." 

Agriculture  was  the  favorite  occupation  of  the  Slavs.  Nearly 
all  their  deities  are  of  an  agricultural  character.  The  favorite 
heroes  of  their  epic  cycle,  Mikula  and  Ilia,  were  the  sons  of 
laborers.  They  had  the  more  liking  for  field  life,  as  bondage 
to  the  glebe  was  still  unknown  among  them.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  Germans  borrowed  the  plough  from  the  Slavs,  and 
that  the  German  name  of  pflug  is  derived  from  the  Slav  plug. 
With  the  wax  and  honey  of  their  hives,  the  corn  of  the  Black 
Land,  and  the  furs  of  the  north,  the  Russians  carried  on  a 
great  trade.  Their  dependence  upon  strangers,  together  with 
a  sociable  instinct,  natural  to  primitive  races,  made  them  very 
hospitable ;  it  was  even  permitted  to  steal  for  the  benefit  of 
the  unexpected  guest.  A  peaceful  race,  devoted  to  liberty, 
music,  and  dancing,  appears  in  the  idyllic  picture  painted  for 
us  of  the  early  Slavs.  The  Emperor  Maurice,  on  the  contrary, 


CHAP.  III.]          PRIMITIVE  RUSSIA:  THE  SLAVS.  59 

who  had  had  dealings  with  all  kinds  of  adventurous  tribes,  as- 
sures us  that  they  were  warlike,  cruel  in  battle,  full  of  savage 
wiles,  able  to  conceal  themselves  in  places  where  it  seemed  im- 
possible their  bodies  could  be  hidden,  or  to  lie  in  ambush  in 
streams  for  hours  together,  the  water  over  their  heads,  breath- 
ing by  means  of  a  reed.  Their  armor  was  defective,  they  had 
no  breastplates,  they  fought  on  foot,  were  naked  to  the  waist, 
and  had  for  weapons,  pikes,  large  shields,  wooden  bows, 
poisoned  arrows,  and  lassos  to  catch  their  victims.  This  sketch 
specially  applies  to  the  invaders  of  the  Roman  provinces  of 
the  Danube.  It  is  probable  that  these  agricultural  races  had 
in  general  a  military  organization  inferior  to  that  of  their 
Turkish  and  Scandinavian  neighbors  who  lived  by  plunder. 
The  imperfection  of  their  political  condition,  their  minute 
division  into  clans  and  cantons,  the  incessant  warfare  of  canton 
with  canton,  delivered  them  up,  defenceless,  to  their  invaders. 
While  the  Slavs  of  the  south  paid  tribute  to  the  Khazarui,  the 
Slavs  of  Ilmen,  exhausted  by  their  divisions,  decided  on  calling 
in  the  Variagi,  or  Varangians.  "  '  Let  us  seek/  they  said,  '  a 
prince  who  will  govern  us  and  reason  with  us  justly.'  Then," 
continues  Nestor,  "  the  Tchudi,*  the  Slavs  of  Novgorod,  the 
Krivitchi,  and  other  confederate  races,  said  to  the  Variag 
princes, '  Our  land  is  great  and  fruitful,  but  it  lacks  order  and 
justice ;  come  and  take  possession,  and  govern  us/  ' 

*  The  Tchudi  here  mentioned  are  rather  Slavs  who  had  colonized  the  Tchud 
country  about  Pskof  and  Izborsk. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  VARIAGI:  FORMATION  OF  RUSSIA;  THE 
FIRST  EXPEDITIONS  AGAINST  CONSTANTI- 
NOPLE. 

862  -  972. 

THE  NORTHMEN  IN  RUSSIA  :  ORIGIN  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  VARIAGI.  — 
THE  FIRST  RUSSIAN  PRINCES:  RURIK,  OLEG,  IGOR.  —  EXPEDITIONS 
AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE. —  OLGA  :  CHRISTIANITY  IN  RUSSIA.  —  SVIA- 
TOSLAF.  —  THE  DANUBE  DISPUTED  BETWEEN  THE  RUSSIANS  AND 
GREEKS. 


THE  NORTHMEN  IN  RUSSIA:    ORIGIN  AND  CUSTOMS   OF 
THE  VARIAGL 

WHO  were  these  Variagi,  or  Varangians  ?  To  what  race 
did  they  belong  ?  No  questions  in  the  early  history  of 
Russia  are  more  eagerly  debated.  After  more  than  a  century 
of  controversy,  the  various  views  have  been  reduced  to  three :  — 
The  Variagi  were  of  Scandinavian  origin,  and  it  was  they 
who  gave  the  name  of  Russia  to  the  Slav  countries.  A  most 
weighty  argument  in  support  of  this  theory  is  the  large  num- 
ber of  Scandinavian  names  in  the  list  of  Variag  princes  who 
reigned  in  Russia.  The  Emperor  Constantine  Porphyrogeni- 
tus,  speaking  of  Russia,  makes  a  distinction  between  the  Slavs 
and  the  Russians  proper.  In  his  description  of  the  cataracts  of 
the  Dnieper,  he  gives  to  each  the  Russian  and  the  Slav  name, 
and  these  Russian  names  may  nearly  all  be  understood  by 
reference  to  Scandinavian  roots.  Ltiitprand,  speaking  of  the 
Russians,  expresses  himself  in  these  terms :  "  Graeci  vocant 
Russos  ....  nos  vero  Normannos."  The  Annals  of  Saint 
Bertinus  say  that  the  Emperor  Theophilus  recommended  some 


862-972.]  FOEMATION  OF  RUSSIA.  61 

Russian  envoys  to  Louis  le  Debonnaire,  but  he,  taking  them 
for  Norman  spies,  threw  them  into  prison.  Finally,  the  first 
Russian  Code  of  Laws,  compiled  by  laroslaf,  presents  a  strik- 
ing analogy  with  the  Scandinavian  laws.  The  partisans  of  this 
opinion  place  the  mother  country  of  the  Russians  in  Sweden, 
where  they  point  particularly  to  a  spot  called  Roslog,  and  asso- 
ciations of  oarsmen  called  Roslagen.  At  the  present  day  the 
Finns  call  the  Swedes  Rootzi. 

The  second  theory  is  that  the  Variagi  were  Slavs,  and  came 
either  from  the  Slav  shores  of  the  Baltic,  or  from  some  Scan- 
dinavian region  where  the  Slavs  had  founded  a  colony.  The 
word  Russia  is  not  of  Swedish  origin ;  it  is  applied  very  early 
to  the  country  of  the  Dnieper.  To  come  from  Rus  or  to  go  to 
Rus  are  expressions  to  be  met  with  in  the  ancient  documents, 
and  Rus  there  signifies  the  country  of  Kief.  Arabic  writers 
give  the  name  of  Russians  to  a  nation  they  consider  very 
numerous,  and  they  mean  in  this  case,  not  Scandinavians,  but 
indigenous  Slavs. 

The  last  theory  is  that  the  Variagi  were  not  a  nation,  but  a 
band  of  warriors  formed  of  exiled  adventurers,  some  Slavs, 
others  Scandinavians.  The  partisans  of  this  opinion  show  us 
that  the  Slav  and  Scandinavian  races,  from  very  early  times, 
were  in  frequent  commercial  and  political  relations.  The 
leaders  of  the  band  were  generally  Scandinavian,  but  part  of 
the  soldiers  were  Slav.  This  hypothesis,  which  diminishes 
the  Norman  element  in  the  Variagi,  serves  to  explain  how  the 
establishment  of  these  adventurers  in  the  country  but  little 
affected  the  Slavs  of  the  Ilmen  and  the  Dnieper.  It  explains, 
too,  the  rapid  absorption  of  the  new-comers  in  the  conquered 
race,  an  absorption  so  complete  that  Rurik's  grandson,  Svia- 
toslaf,  bore  a  Slav  name,  while  his  great-grandson,  Vladimir, 
remains  in  the  memory  of  the  people  as  the  type  of  a  Slav 
prince.  Whether  the  Variagi  were  pure  Scandinavians,  or 
whether  they  were  mingled  with  Slav  adventurers,  it  seems 
certain  that  the  former  element  predominated,  and  that  we  may 


62  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

identify  these  men  from  the  North  with  the  sea-kings  so  cele- 
brated in  the  West  during  the  decay  of  the  Carolings.  M.  Sa- 
mokvasof  has  lately  opened,  near  Tchernigof,  the  Black  tomb 
containing  the  bones  and  arms  of  an  unknown  prince  who 
lived  in  the  tenth  century,  and  was  probably  a  Variag.  His 
coat  of  mail  and  pointed  helmet  in  all  respects  resemble 
the  arms  of  the  Norman  warriors.  The  Russian  princes  that 
we  find  in  the  early  miniatures  are  clothed  and  armed  like 
the  Norman  chiefs  pictured  in  the  Bayeux  tapestry  of  Queen 
Matilda.  It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that,  in  our  own  age, 
art  has  made  almost  identical  representations  of  Rurik  on  the 
monument  lately  erected  at  Novgorod,  and  of  William  the 
Conqueror  on  the  monument  at  Falaise.  The  Variagi,  like 
the  Normans,  astonished  the  nations  of  the  South  by  their 
reckless  courage  and  gigantic  stature.  "  They  were  as  tall  as 
palm-trees,"  said  the  Arabs.  Bold  sailors,  admirable  foot- 
soldiers,  the  Variagi  differed  widely  from  the  mounted  and 
nomad  races  of  Southern  Russia,  Hungarians,  Khazarui, 
Petchenegi,  whose  tactics  were  always  Parthian.  The  Russians, 
according  to  Leo  the  Deacon,  who  was  an  eyewitness  of  the 
fact,  fought  in  a  compact  mass,  and  seemed  like  a  wall  of  iron, 
bristling  with  lances,  glittering  with  shields,  from  which  arose 
a  ceaseless  clamor  like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  —  the  famous  bar- 
ditus,  or  barritus,  of  the  Germans  of  Tacitus.  A  huge  shield 
covered  them  to  their  feet,  and,  when  they  fought  in  retreat, 
they  turned  this  enormous  buckler  on  their  backs,  and 
became  invulnerable.  The  fury  of  battle  at  last  made  them 
beside  themselves,  like  the  Bersarks.  Never,  says  the  same 
author,  were  they  seen  to  surrender.  When  victory  was  lost, 
they  stabbed  themselves,  for  they  held  that  those  who  died  by 
the  hand  of  an  enemy  were  condemned  to  serve  him  in  an- 
other life.  The  Greeks  had  for  many  years  greatly  admired 
these  heroes  worthy  of  the  Edda.  Under  the  name  of  Ros  or 
Variagi,  they  formed  the  body-guard  of  the  emperor,  and 
figured  in  all  the  Byzantine  armies.  In  the  expedition  of 


862-972.]  FORMATION  OF  RUSSIA.  63 

nine  hundred  and  two  against  Crete,  seven  hundred  Russians 
took  part ;  four  hundred  and  fifteen  in  that  of  Lombardy  in 
nine  hundred  and  twenty-five ;  five  hundred  and  eighty-four 
in  that  of  Greece  in  nine  hundred  and  forty-nine. 

The  Russian  Variagi  readily  sold  their  services  to  foreign 
nations,  to  Novgorod  as  well  as  to  Byzantium.  This  is  one 
more  feature  of  resemblance  with  the  Normans  of  France, 
whom  the  Greek  emperors  also  employed  in  their  wars  against 
the  Saracens  of  Italy.  Sometimes,  instead  of  fighting  for 
others,  they  made  war  for  themselves.  This  was  the  case 
with  the  Danes  in  England,  the  Normans  in  Neustria,  the 
descendants  of  Tancred  in  Naples  and  Sicily,  the  companions 
of  Rurik  in  Russia.  As  they  were  usually  a  very  small  num- 
ber, they  blended  rapidly  with  the  conquered  nations.  Thus 
the  descendants  of  Rollo  quickly  became  Frenchmen,  and 
those  of  Robert  Guiscard,  Sicilians.  In  the  Variag  bands 
Slavs  were  mingled  with  Scandinavians ;  but  we  also  know 
that  in  the  bands  of  Northmen  who  ravaged  the  country  of 
France  there  was  a  large  number  of  Gallo-Romans,  renegades 
from  Christianity,  who  thirsted  more  for  pillage  and  murder 
than  did  the  Vikings  themselves.  This  mingling  of  the  ad- 
venturers and  the  indigenous  race  explains  the  rapidity  with 
which  both  the  Normans  of  Russia  and  the  Normans  of  France 
lost  their  language,  customs,  and  religion.  The  Variagi  re- 
tained one  thing  only,  their  military  superiority,  the  habit  of 
obeying  the  chosen  or  hereditary  chief.  Into  the  Slav  anarchy 
they  brought  this  element  of  martial  order  and  discipline, 
without  which  a  state  cannot  exist.  They  imposed  on  the 
natives  the  amount  of  constraint  necessary  to  drag  them  from 
their  isolation  and  division  into  village  communities  and  can- 
tons. The  Slavs  of  the  Danube  in  the  same  way  owe  their 
constitution  to  a  band  of  Finno-Bulgarian  adventurers  under 
Asparukh ;  the  Polish  Slavs  to  the  invasion  of  the  Liakhi,  or 
Lekhites ;  the  Tcheki  to  the  Frank  Samo,  who  enabled  them 
to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the  Avars. 


64  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

The  spontaneous  appeal  of  the  Slavs  to  the  Variag  princes 
may  seem  to  us  strange.  We  might  believe  that  the  annalist, 
like  the  old  French  historians,  has  tried  to  disguise  the  fact  of 
a  conquest,  by  representing  that  the  Slavs  submitted  volunta- 
rily to  the  Variagi  of  Rurik,  as  the  Gauls  are  supposed  to  have 
done  to  the  Franks  of  Clovis.  But  in  reality  there  was  no 
conquest,  a  statement  which  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
municipal  organization  remained  intact,  that  the  Vetche  con- 
tinued to  deliberate  by  the  side  of  the  prince,  the  local  army 
to  fight  in  conjunction  with  the  band  of  adventurers.  The 
laws  of  laroslaf  established  the  same  indemnification  for  the 
murder  of  either  Slav  or  Variag,  while  the  Merovingian  laws 
recognize  a  great  difference  between  a  Gallo-Roman  and  a 
Frank.  The  defence  of  the  country,  the  administration  of 
justice,  and  the  collection  of  the  tribute  were  the  special  cares 
of  the  prince,  the  last  being  considered  his  legitimate  reward. 
He  played  in  the  Slav  towns  a  part  similar  to  that  of  the  Ital- 
ian podestas  in  the  fifteenth  century,  who  were  called  in  to 
administer  justice  impartially,  or  to  that  of  the  leaders  to 
whom  the  cities  intrusted  their  defence. 

As  early  as  eight  hundred  and  fifty-nine  the  Variagi  exacted 
tribute  from  the  Slavs  of  Ilmen  and  the  Krivitchi,  as  well  as 
the  Tchudi,  Ves,  and  Meriane.  The  natives  had  once  ex- 
pelled the  Variagi,  but,  as 'divisions  once  more  became  rife 
among  them,  they  decided  that  they  needed  a  strong  govern- 
ment, and  recalled  them  in  eight  hundred  and  sixty-two. 
Whether  the  name  Russia,  or  Ens,  was  originally  derived  from 
a  province  of  Sweden  or  from  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper,  the 
fact  remains  that  with  the  arrival  of  the  Variagi  in  Slavonia 
the  true  history  of  Russia  commences.  It  was  the  one  thou- 
sandth anniversary  of  this  event  that  was  commemorated  at 
Novgorod  in  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two.  With  the 
Variagi  the  Russian  name  became  famous  in  Eastern  Europe. 
It  was  the  epoch  of  brilliant  and  adventurous  expeditions ;  it 
was  the  heroic  age  of  Russia. 


862-972.]  FORMATION  OF  RUSSIA.  65 

The  Variagi  of  Novgorod  and  Kief  are  not  unworthy  mates 
of  the  Normans  of  the  West,  —  the  bold  conquerors  who 
sought  their  fortunes  from  the  coasts  of  England,  Sicily,  and 
Syria.  They  are  to  be  found  nearly  at  the  same  time  under 
the  walls  of  Constantinople  and  at  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus, 
where  they  captured  the  town  of  Berdaa  from  the  Arabs 
in  nine  hundred  and  forty-four.  Nestor,  the  monk  of  the 
Petcherski  convent  at  Kief,  whose  history  extends  down  to  the 
year  eleven  hundred  and  sixteen,  adds  to  his  conscientious 
accounts  many  legendary  tales,  which  seem  like  an  echo  of 
Scandinavian  sagas  and  early  Russian  heroic  poems.  His 
Annals,  which  Greek  and  French  authorities  enable  us  to  cor- 
rect, and  which  are  tolerably  exact  in  all  essentials,  seem  at 
times,  like  the  first  books  of  Livy,  to  be  epic  poetry  converted 
into  prose. 


THE  FIRST  RUSSIAN  PRINCES:  RURIK,   OLEG,   IGOR.— 
EXPEDITIONS  AGAINST  CONSTANTINOPLE. 

At  the  call  of  the  Slavs,  Rurik,  Sineus,  and  Truvor,  three 
Variag  brothers,  whose  Scandinavian  names  signify  the  Peace- 
ful, the  Victorious,  and  the  Faithful,  gathered  together  "  their 
brothers  and  their  families,"  that  is,  their  warriors,  or  drujina, 
corresponding  to  the  truste  of  the  Frank  kings,  crossed  the 
Baltic,  and  took  up  their  position  on  the  borders  of  the  terri- 
tory which  they  were  summoned  to  defend.  Rurik,  the  eld- 
est, established  himself  on  the  Lake  Ladoga,  near  which,  on 
the  southern  side,  he  founded  the  city  of  Ladoga  ;  Sineus,  on 
the  White  Lake  or  in  the  Ves  country ;  Truvor  at  Izborsk, 
to  hold  the  Livonians  in  check.  When  the  two  latter  died, 
Rurik  established  himself  at  Novgorod,  where  he  built,  not  a 
town,  as  Nestor  would  have  us  believe,  but  a  castle.  It  is 
thus  we  must  explain  the  pretended  foundation  by  his  orders 
of  Polotsk  and  of  Rostof,  which  had  existed  long  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Variagi.  What  he  probably  did  was  to  trans- 


VOL.  I. 


66  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

form  ancient  villages  with  ramparts  of  mud  into  fortresses. 
Two  other  Variagi,  Askold  and  Dir,  who  were  not  of  the 
family  of  Rurik,  went  down  to  Kief,  and  reigned  over  the 
Poliane.  It  was  they  who  began  the  expeditions  against 
Tsargrad,  or  Byzantium,  the  queen  of  cities.  With  two  hun- 
dred vessels,  says  Nestor,  they  entered  the  Sund,  in  old  Slav 
Sud,  the  Bosphorus  or  the  Golden  Horn,  and  besieged  Con- 
stantinople. But  the  Patriarch  Photius,  according  to  the 
Byzantine  accounts,  took  the  wonder-working  robe  of  Our 
Lady  of  Blacherna?,  and  plunged  it  in  the  waves.  A  fierce 
tempest  instantly  arose,  and  the  whole  Russian  fleet  was 
destroyed. 

Rurik's  successor  was  not  his  son  Igor,  then  a  minor,  but 
the  eldest  member  of  the  family,  his  fourth  brother,  the  enter- 
prising Oleg.  At  the  head  of  an  army  composed  of  Variagi, 
Slavs,  and  Finns  he  marched  to  the  south,  received  the  sub- 
mission of  Smolensk  and  Lubetch,  and  arrived  under  the  walls 
of  Kief.  By  means  of  treachery  he  took  Askold  and  Dir  pris- 
oners, and  put  them  to  death,  observing :  "  You  are  neither 
princes  yourselves,  nor  of  the  blood  of  princes  ;  this  is  the  son 
of  Rurik,"  pointing  to  Igor.  The  tomb  of  Askold  is  still 
shown  near  Kief.  Oleg  was  charmed  with  his  new  conquest, 
and  took  up  his  abode  there,  saying,  "  Let  Kief  be  the  mother 
of  Russian  cities."  The  Variag  chief  held  communication 
both  with  the  Baltic  and  the  Black  Sea  by  means  of  Novgo- 
rod, Smolensk,  and  Kief.  He  subdued  the  Novgorodians,  the 
Krivitchi,  the  Meria,  the  Drevliane,  the  Severiane,  the  Poliane, 
the  Radimitchi,  and  thus  united  nearly  all  the  Russian  tribes 
under  his  sceptre.  It  was  about  this  time  that  the  Hunga- 
rians crossed  the  Dnieper  near  Kief,  and  invaded  Pannonia. 
The  Magyar  chronicles  speak  of  their  having  defeated  Oleg ; 
Nestor  is  silent  on  the  subject. 

In  nine  hundred  and  seven  Oleg  collected  a  large  army 
from  among  the  tributary  races,  equipped  two  thousand  boats, 
and  prepared  to  invade  Tsargrad  by  land  and  sea.  Russian 


862-972.]  FORMATION  OF  RUSSIA.  67 

legends  have  embellished  this  expedition  with  many  wonderful 
details.  Oleg  built  wheels  to  his  vessels,  and  spread  their  sails ; 
blown  by  the  wind,  they  reached  the  gates  of  the  city.  Leo 
the  Sixth,  the  Philosopher,  in  fright,  agreed  to  pay  tribute,  but 
the  Greeks  tried  to  get  rid  of  the  Russians  by  offering  them 
poisoned  food.  Oleg  divined  their  perfidy.  He  imposed  a 
heavy  contribution,  a  commercial  treaty  advantageous  to  the 
Russians,  and  suspended  his  shield  on  the  Golden  Door. 

To  his  subjects  Oleg  was  more  than  a  hero.  Terror-stricken 
by  his  wisdom,  this  "  foolish  and  idolatrous  people "  looked 
on  him  as  a  sorcerer.  In  the  Scandinavian  sagas  we  find 
many  instances  of  chiefs,  such  as  Odin,  Gylf,  and  Raude,  being 
at  the  same  time  great  warriors  and  great  magicians.  It  is 
strange  that  neither  Greek,  Frank,  nor  Venetian  historians 
allude  to  this  campaign.  Nestor  cites  the  names  of  the  Rus- 
sian envoys  who  negotiated  the  peace,  and  gives  the  text  of 
the  treaty. 

A  magician  had  predicted  to  Oleg  that  his  favorite  horse 
would  cause  his  death.  It  was  kept  at  a  distance  from  him, 
and  when,  five  years  after,  the  animal  died  in  nine  hundred 
and  twelve,  he  insisted  on  being  taken  to  see  its  body,  as  a 
triumph  over  the  ignorance  and  imposture  of  the  sorcerers. 
But  from  the  skull  of  the  horse  issued  a  serpent  which  in- 
flicted a  mortal  sting  on  the  foot  of  the  hero. 

Igor  led  a  third  expedition  against  Tsargrad.  The  Dnieper 
conducted,  as  it  were  of  its  own  will,  the  Russian  flotilla  to 
the  seas  of  Greece.  Igor  had  ten  thousand  vessels  according 
to  the  Greek  historians,  one  thousand  according  to  the  more 
probable  calculation  of  Luitprand.  This  would  allow  four 
hundred  thousand  men  in  the  first  case,  and  only  forty  thou- 
sand in  the  second.  Instead  of  attacking  the  town,  he  cruelly 
ravaged  the  Greek  provinces.  The  Byzantine  admirals  and 
generals  united,  and  destroyed  the  Russian  army  in  a  series 
of  engagements  by  the  aid  of  Greek  fire.  Nestor  has  not 
copied  the  numerous  details  which  the  Byzantine  historians 


68  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

give  of  this  battle,  but  we  have  the  evidence  of  Luitprand, 
bishop  of  Cremona,  derived  from  his  father-in-law,  the  ambas- 
sador of  the  King  of  Italy  at  Constantinople,  who  saw  with  his 
own  eyes  the  defeat  of  Igor,  and  was  present  at  the  sacrifice 
of  prisoners,  beheaded  by  order  of  the  Emperor  Romanus  Leca- 
penus.  In  nine  hundred  and  forty-four  Igor  secured  the  help 
of  the  formidable  Petchenegi,  and  organized  an  expedition  to 
avenge  his  defeat.  The  Greek  emperor,  now  seriously  alarmed, 
offered  to  pay  tribute,  and  signed  a  new  commercial  treaty,  the 
text  of  which  is  given  by  Nestor.  Byzantine  and  Western 
writers  do  not  mention  this  second  expedition  of  Igor.  On 
his  return  from  Russia,  in  nine  hundred  and  forty-five,  he  was 
assassinated  by  the  Drevliane,  from  whom  he  had  tried  to  exact 
tribute.  Leo  the  Deacon,  a  Greek  writer,  says  he  was  torn  in 
pieces  by  means  of  two  young  trees,  bent  forcibly  to  the  earth, 
and  then  allowed  to  take  their  natural  direction. 


OLGA:  CHRISTIANITY  IN  RUSSIA. 

Olga,  Igor's  widow,  assumed  the  regency  in  the  name  of  her 
son  Sviatoslaf,  then  a  minor.  Her  first  care  was  to  revenge 
herself  on  the  Drevliane.  In  Nestor's  account  it  is  impossible 
to  distinguish  between  the  history  and  the  epic.  The  Russian 
chronicler  relates  in  detail  how  the  Drevliane  sent  two  depu- 
tations to  Olga  to  appease  her,  and  to  offer  her  the  hand  of 
their  prince,  and  how  she  disposed  of  them  by  treachery,  bury- 
ing some  alive,  and  causing  others  to  be  stifled  in  a  bathing- 
house.  Next,  says  Nestor,  she  besieged  their  city  Korosten, 
and  offered  them  peace  on  payment  of  a  tribute  of  three  pigeons 
and  three  sparrows  for  each  house.  Lighted  itow  was  tied  to 
the  tails  of  the  birds,  and  they  were  set  free.  They  flew 
straight  home  to  the  wooden  town,  where  the  barns  and 
thatched  roofs  instantly  took  fire.  Lastly  the  legend  relates 
that  Olga  massacred  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Korosten  and 
reduced  the  rest  to  slavery. 


862-972.]  FORMATION  OF  KUSSIA.  69 

This  vindictive  Scandinavian  woman,  in  spite  of  all,  was  des- 
tined to  be  the  first  apostle  of  Russia.  Nestor  relates  that  she 
went  to  Tsargrad  to  the  Emperor  Constantine  Porphyrogeni- 
tus,  astonished  him  by  the  strength  and  adroitness  of  her  char- 
acter, and  was  baptized  under  the  name  of  Helen,  the  Greek 
Tsar  being  her  godfather.  Only  two  facts  in  Nestor's  account 
are  historical,  namely,  the  reception  of  Olga  at  the  imperial 
palace  of  Constantinople,  related  in  detail  in  the  "  Book  of 
Ceremonies,"  and  perhaps  her  baptism.  If  the  Greek  histo- 
rians do  not  mention  it  in  the  contemporary  chronicles,  it  is 
because  they  did  not  perceive  the  important  consequences  of 
this  event.  If  writers  allude  to  it  in  the  chronicles  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  it  is  because  the  consequences 
of  the  event  had  by  that  time  been  completely  developed. 

Even  in  Russia  Olga's  conversion  passed  almost  unnoticed. 
Christianity  had  made  but  little  progress  in  that  country.  No 
doubt  since  Cyril  and  Methodius  had  invented  the  Slavonic 
alphabet,  and  translated  the  Holy  Books  for  the  Bulgarians, 
Christianity,  which  had  already  triumphed  over  some  Slav 
peoples,  was  being  handed  on  from  one  to  the  other.  Some 
missions  were  already  established  in  Russia.  The  Byzantines 
say,  that,  alarmed  by  the  miraculous  defeat  of  Askold  and  Dir, 
and  seized  with  a  respectful  awe  of  the  Christian  talismans  of 
the  Patriarch  Photius,  the  Russians  "  sent  envoys  to  Constan- 
tinople to  ask  for  baptism."  The  Emperor  Basil,  the  Macedo- 
nian, then  gave  them  an  archbishop,  who  performed  a  miracle 
before  them.  He  threw  a  copy  of  the  Gospels  into  a  bra- 
zier, and  drew  it  out  unharmed.  According  to  this  account, 
Askold  was  the  first  Russian  prince  who  became  a  Christian. 
Hence  the  worship  rendered  to  his  tomb  and  memory.  In  the 
list  of  Byzantine  Eparchies  under  Leo  the  Sixth,  the  Bishopric 
of  Russia  figures,  of  which  no  doubt  Kief  was  the  metropolis. 
These  missions,  however,  do  not  seem  to  have  been  very  success- 
ful ;  at  the  time  of  the  treaty  concluded  between  Oleg  and  Leo 
the  Sixth,  the  Russians  still  swore  by  their  swords,  by  Volos, 


70  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

and  by  Perun.  In  the  treaty  concluded  by  Igor,  when  the 
Russians  swore  at  Kief  before  the  emperor's  envoy,  to  confirm 
it,  some  ascended  the  hill  of  Perun  and  performed  the  vows  in 
the  ancient  way ;  others  went  to  the  chapel  of  Saint  Elias,  and 
laid  their  hand  on  the  Gospel.  There  existed  then,  in  the 
"  mother  of  Russian  cities,"  a  Christian  community,  though  a 
very  weak  one,  if  it  is  true  that  Olga  refused  to  be  baptized 
in  Kief,  "  for  fear  of  the  pagans."  The  mass  of  warriors  kept 
Christianity  at  a  distance.  In  their  expeditions  against  the 
Byzantine  provinces,  we  find  them  attacking  monasteries  and 
churches  by  preference,  giving  them  up  to  the  flames,  and 
finding  a  peculiar  pleasure  in  torturing  priests  and  monks  by 
driving  nails  into  their  heads.  It  was  thus  that  the  Normans 
of  France,  the  fanatics  of  Odinism,  treated  the  ecclesiastics 
with  refinements  of  cruelty,  boasting  that  they  "  sang  them 
the  Mass  of  lances."  "When  one  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Grand 
Prince  wished  to  become  a  convert,"  says  Nestor,  "  he  was 
not  prevented,  but  only  laughed  at."  The  efforts  of  Olga  for 
the  conversion  of  her  son  Sviatoslaf,  who  had  assumed  the 
reins  of  government  on  reaching  his  majority,  were  fruitless. 
He  did  not  like  to  expose  himself  to  the  ridicule  of  his  soldiers 
by  embracing  a  new  faith.  "  My  men  will  mock  me,"  he  re- 
plied to  the  prayers  of  his  mother.  "And  often,"  Nestor  affirms 
sadly,  "  he  became  furious  with  her."  Olga  vainly  assured  him 
that  if  he  would  be  baptized,  all  his  subjects  would  soon  follow 
his  example.  The  public  mind  was  not  yet  in  a  condition  for 
the  example  of  the  prince  to  be  all-powerful.  The  Christian 
Olga,  canonized  by  the  Church,  "the  first  Russian  who  mounted 
to  the  heavenly  kingdom,"  remained  an  exception,  little  noticed 
or  thought  of  in  the  midst  of  the  pagan  aristocracy. 

SVIATOSLAF.  —  THE   DANUBE  DISPUTED  BETWEEN  THE 
KUSSIANS  AND  GREEKS. 

The  reign  of  Sviatoslaf,  from  nine  hundred  and  sixty-four 
until  nine  hundred  and  seventy-two,  though  short,  was  sig- 


862-972.]  FORMATION  OF  RUSSIA.  71 

nalized  by  two  memorable  events  :  the  defeat  of  the  Khazarui, 
and  the  great  war  against  the  Byzantine  Empire  for  the  pos- 
session of  Bulgaria.  About  the  former  event  the  annalist 
gives  few  details ;  but  Sviatoslaf  must  have  gained  a  complete 
victory,  if  it  be  true  that  he  took  the  White  City,  capital  of 
the  Khazar  Empire  on  the  Don,  and  that  he  exacted  tribute 
from  the  las  or  Osetinui  of  the  Caucasus,  and  the  Kassogans 
or  Tcherkesui.  The  Russians  had  no  reason  to  rejoice  in 
their  success,  for  the  decline  of  the  Khazarui,  who  were  a 
civilized  people,  favored  the  progress  of  the  Petchenegi,  the 
most  ferocious  of  all  barbarians.  The  Arabs  spoke  of  them 
as  wild  beasts,  and  Matthew  of  Edessa  calls  them  "  a  greedy 
people,  devouring  the  bodies  of  men,  corrupt  and  impure, 
bloody  and  cruel  beasts."  During  one  of  the  frequent  ab- 
sences of  Sviatoslaf,  the  Petchenegi  suddenly  appeared  under 
the  walls  of  Kief,  where  the  mother  and  children  of  the  Grand 
Prince  had  taken  refuge,  and  reduced  it  to  the  last  extremity. 
The  bold  manoeuvre  of  a  vo'ievod  saved  the  Kievans,  who  were 
starving.  On  his  return  to  his  capital  Sviatoslaf  was  horrified 
at  the  risks  it  had  encountered.  It  was  at  the  hands  of  these 
same  Petchenegi  that  he  was  one  day  to  perish. 

On  the  subject  of  the  Bulgarian  war  Nestor's  narrative  is 
confused  and  incomplete.  He  is  silent  about  the  Russian 
defeats,  and  legend  mixes  largely  with  historical  facts.  Nes- 
tor relates  that  the  Greeks  wished  to  ascertain  what  sort  of 
man  Sviatoslaf  was.  They  sent  him  gifts  of  gold  and  fine  tis- 
sues, but  the  Grand  Prince  looked  on  them  with  disdain,  and 
said  to  his  soldiers,  "  Take  them  away."  Then  they  sent  him 
a  sword  and  other  weapons,  and  the  hero  seized  them  and 
kissed  them  enthusiastically.  The  Greeks  were  afraid,  and 
said,  "This  must  be  a  fierce  man,  since  he  despises  wealth 
and  accepts  a  sword  for  tribute."  Happily  the  very  minute 
account  of  Leo  the  Deacon  appears  both  exact  and  impartial, 
and  we  are  enabled  to  follow  this  campaign,  in  which  a  chief 
of  the  growing  Russian  Empire  crosses  that  Danube  which 


72  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

the  Russian  armies  are  not  again  to  see  till  the  reign  of  Cathe- 
rine the  Second  and  Nicholas.  The  Greek  emperor,  Nicephorus 
Phocas,  in  order  to  avenge  himself  on  Peter  the  Tsar  of  Bul- 
garia, had  recourse  to  the  dangerous  expedient  so  frequent  in 
Byzantine  policy.  He  called  in  the  barbarians.  A  certain 
Kalokuir  was  sent  as  envoy  to  Sviatoslaf  with  a  sufficient  sum 
of  money  to  allow  him  to  take  the  field.  It  was  thus  that 
these  two  Slav  races  —  who  owed  their  constitutions,  one  to 
the  Variag  drujina  of  Rurik,  the  other  to  the  Turanian  dru- 
jina  of  Asparukh  —  were  brought  into  conflict  by  Greek  diplo- 
macy. Sviatoslaf  descended  on  Bulgaria  with  a  thoroughly 
equipped  fleet,  reassured  the  Byzantines  by  bringing  sixty 
thousand  men  to  their  assistance,  took  Pereiaslaf,  the  Bul- 
garian capital,  and  all  their  fortresses. 

The  Tsar  Peter  yielded  to  his  evil  destiny  at  the  moment 
the  Petchenegi  were  besieging  Kief.  This  lesson  was,  how- 
ever, lost  on  Sviatoslaf.  He  was  overjoyed  at  his  conquest, 
and  wished  to  transport  his  capital  to  Pereiaslaf  on  the  Dan- 
ube, a  city  distinct  from  Pereiaslaf,  or  Prislaf,  the  modern 
Eski-Stambul,  which  was  the  capital  of  the  Bulgarians  in  the 
tenth  century.  "  This  place,"  he  said  to  his  mother,  "  is  the 
central  point  of  my  possessions,  and  abounds  in  wealth. 
Prom  Greece  come  precious  stuffs,  wine,  gold,  and  all  kinds  of 
fruit ;  from  the  country  of  the  Tcheki  and  Hungarians,  horses 
and  silver ;  from  Russia,  furs,  honey,  wax,  and  slaves."  This 
resolution  of  Sviatoslaf  was  fraught  with  immense  danger  to 
the  Greek  Empire.  If  Byzantium  feared  the  neighborhood  of 
an  enfeebled  Bulgaria,  how  was  it  to  resist  a  power  that  ex- 
tended from  the  Baltic  to  the  Balkans,  and  which  could  add  to 
the  Bulgarian  legions,  disciplined  after  the  Roman  fashion  by 
the  Tsar  Simeon,  the  Variagi  of  Scandinavia,  the  Russian 
Slavs,  the  Pinnish  hordes  of  the  Ves,  Tchudi,  and  Meria,  and 
even  the  light  cavalry  of  the  Petchenegi  ? 

The  formation  of  a  'great  Slav  Empire  so  close  to  Constan- 
tinople would  have  been  rendered  more  formidable  by  the 


CASTLE    ON    THE    DANUBE. 


ANCIENT    GATE    IN    KOLOSVAR. 


862-972.]  FOEMATION  OF  EUSSIA.  73 

ethnographical  constitution  of  the  peninsula.  Ancient  Thrace 
and  ancient  Macedon  were  peopled  by  Slav  tribes,  some  of 
whom  were  offshoots  from  the  Russian  tribes ;  for  example, 
Dregovitchi  and  Smolens  were  to  be  found  there  as  mucH  as 
at  Minsk  and  Smolensk.  Thessaly,  Attica,  and  the  Pelopon- 
nesos  were  invaded  by  these  emigrants,  who  became  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Greek  Empire.  The  famous  mountain  Taygetus, 
in  Laconia,  was  inhabited  by  two  Slav  tribes,  still  unsubdued, 
—  the  Milingians  and  the  Ezerites.  We  must  not  forget  that 
Bulgaria  extended  as  far  as  the  Okhrid,  and  that  the  ancient 
provinces,  under  the  names  of  Kroatia,  Servia,  and  Dalmatia, 
had  become  almost  entirely  Slav.  This  great  race  extended 
then  almost  unbroken  from  the  Peloponnesos,  already  called 
by  the  Slav  name  of  Morea,  to  Novgorod.  Thus,  if  the  town 
of  Pereiaslaf  on  the  Danube  had  really  become  the  centre  of 
the  Russian  dominions,  according  to  the  wish  of  Sviatoslaf, 
the  Greek  race  and  the  Roman  domination  in  the  Balkan 
peninsula  would  speedily  have  come  to  an  end.  The  Greek 
emperors  had  been  able  to  resist  Askold,  Oleg,  and  Igor. 
The  Russians  of  their  day  had  lived  far  from  the  empire,  and 
were  obliged  to  go  by  water,  which  limited  greatly  the  num- 
ber of  their  armies.  With  their  canoes  hollowed  out  of  the 
trunks  of  trees,  such  as  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  Russian 
villages,  they  had  to  descend  the  Dnieper,  disembark  at  each 
of  the  seven  cataracts,  or  rapids,  carry  their  boats  around  till 
they  could  re-embark  farther  on,  and  all  the  while  give  battle 
to  the  Petchenegi,  who  were  in  ambush  behind  the  rocks. 
After  they  had  escaped  these  perils,  they  had  to  brave  with 
their  frail  skiffs  the  tempests  of  the  Black  Sea,  the  powerful 
Roman  galleys  manned  by  the  best  sailors  of  the  East,  and 
the  mysterious  Greek  fire  which  filled  them  with  terror.  Few 
reached  the  walls  of  Constantinople,  and  their  defeat  was  cer- 
tain. Now,  on  the  contrary,  masters  of  the  Danube,  masters 
of  the  land-route,  they  could  bring  against  Constantinople  all 
the  hordes  of  Scythia. 


74  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

Fortunately  for  the  Greek  Empire,  it  then  chanced  to  be 
renewing  its  youth.  A  series  of  great  captains  succeeded 
each  other  on  this  tottering  throne.  In  John  Zimisces  the 
Russian  prince  was  to  find  an  adversary  worthy  of  him. 
Sviatoslaf,  recalled  to  Bulgaria,  had  been  obliged  to  reconquer 
it.  It  was  at  this  moment  that  Zirnisces  summoned  him  to 
execute  the  conditions  of  the  treaty  concluded  with  his  prede- 
cessor ;  that  is,  to  evacuate  the  country.  Sviatoslaf,  who  had 
just  taken  Philippopolis  and  exterminated  the  inhabitants,  re- 
plied haughtily  that  he  hoped  soon  to  be  at  Constantinople. 
Zimisces  then  began  his  preparations.  In  the  beginning  of 
March,  nine  hundred  and  seventy-two,  he  despatched  a  fleet 
to  the  north  of  the  Danube,  and  himself  marched  to  Adri- 
anople.  He  surprised  the  Russians,  who  had  not  expected 
him  so  soon,  in  the  defiles  of  the  Balkans  ;  appeared  suddenly 
under  the  walls  of  Pereiaslaf,  defeated  a  body  of  many  thou- 
sand Russians,  and  obliged  them  to  retire  within  the  walls ; 
then  he  gave  the  order  for  the  assault,  and  took  the  town 
by  escalade.  Eight  thousand  Russians  shut  up  in  the  royal 
castle  made  a  desperate  resistance,  refused  to  surrender,  and 
perished  in  the  flames. 

When  the  news  of  this  disaster  reached  Sviatoslaf,  he  ad- 
vanced with  the  greater  part  of  his  army  to  meet  the  emperor, 
and  came  up  with  him  near  Dorostol  in  Silistria.  The  Greek 
historians  make  the  Russian  army  to  have  consisted  of  at 
least  sixty  thousand  men ;  Nestor  reckons  only  ten  thousand. 
Here  a  bloody  battle  took  place,  and  twelve  times  victory 
appeared  to  shift  from  one  side  to  the  other.  The  solidity  of 
the  Russian  infantry  defied  the  charges  of  the  mail-clad  cav- 
alry. At  last  they  gave  way  under  a  desperate  charge,  and 
fell  back  on  Dorostol.  There  they  were  besieged  by  the  em- 
peror, and  displayed  a  wild  courage  in  their  sallies.  Even 
their  women,  like  the  ancient  Amazons,  or  the  heroines  of 
the  Scandinavian  sagas  or  Russian  songs,  took  part  in  the 
combat.  The  Russians  slew  themselves  rather  than  ask  for 


862-972.]  FORMATION  OF  EUSSIA.  75 

mercy.  The  night  following  an  action  they  were  seen  to 
leave  the  town  by  moonlight  to  burn  their  dead.  On  their 
ashes  they  sacrificed  prisoners  of  war,  and  drowned  cocks  and 
little  children  in  the  Danube.  Provisions  failed,  and  Svia- 
toslaf  stole  out  one  stormy  night  with  canoes  manned  by  two 
thousand  warriors,  rowed  round  the  Greek  fleet,  collected 
millet  and  corn  in  the  neighboring  villages,  and,  falling  sud- 
denly on  the  Greeks,  re-entered  the  town  victoriously.  Zimis- 
ces  then  took  measures  to  prevent  any  boat  from  getting  out. 
This  epic  siege  was  signalized  by  some  strange  combats.  One 
of  the  bravest  of  the  Russian  chiefs  was  slain  by  Apemas,  a 
baptized  Arab,  son  of  an  Emir  of  Crete,  one  of  Zimisces' 
body-guard. 

Sviatoslaf  resolved  to  make  one  last  effort,  and  issued  from 
the  town  with  all  his  forces.  Before  the  battle  Zimisces  pro- 
posed to  Sviatoslaf  to  terminate  the  war  by  a  duel  between 
themselves.  It  was  the  barbarian  who  refused :  "  I  know 
better  than  my  enemy  what  I  have  to  do,"  said  Sviatoslaf. 
"  If  he  is  weary  of  life,  there  are  a  thousand  means  by  which 
he  can  end  his  days."  This  battle  was  as  obstinate  and  bloody 
as  the  former.  Sviatoslaf  came  near  being  slain  by  Apemas. 
At  last  the  Russians  gave  way,  leaving  on  the  battle-field, 
says  Leo  the  Deacon,  fifteen  thousand  five  hundred  dead  and 
twenty  thousand  shields.  The  survivors  retired  into  the  town. 
They  were  forced  to  treat.  Zimisces  allowed  them  to  retire 
from  Bulgaria,  and  they  swore  by  Perun  and  Volos  never 
again  to  invade  the  empire,  but  to  help  to  defend  it  against 
all  enemies.  If  they  broke  their  vows,  might  they  "  become 
as  yellow  as  gold,  and  perish  by  their  own  arms."  Nestor 
gives  us  the  text  of  this  convention,  which  was  really  a  capitu- 
lation, and  confirms  the  account  of  the  Greek  historians  rather 
than  his  own.  These  relate  that  Zimisces  sent  deputies  to 
the  Petchenegi  to  beg  them  to  grant  a  free  passage  to  the 
remnant  of  the  Russian  army.  It  is  certain  that  the  barba- 
rians awaited  the  Russians  at  the  Cataracts,  or  Rapids,  of  the 


76  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IV. 

Dnieper.  They  killed  Sviatoslaf,  cut  off  his  head,  and  his 
skull  was  used  by  their  prince,  Kuria,  as  a  drinking-cup. 
Sviatoslaf  was,  in  spite  of  his  Slav  name,  the  very  type  of  a 
Variag  prince  of  the  intrepid,  wily,  and  ambitious  Northmen. 
Nestor  boasts  his  good  faith.  When  he  wished  to  make  war 
on  a  people,  he  sent  to  warn  them.  "  I  am  coming  against 
you,"  he  would  say. 

After  the  surrender  of  Dorostol,  he  had  an  interview 
with  his  enemy  Zimisces.  Leo  the  Deacon  profits  by  the 
occasion  to  give  us  his  portrait.  The  emperor  being  on 
horseback  by  the  shore,  Sviatoslaf  approached  him  by  boat, 
handling  the  oar  like  his  companions.  He  was  of  middle 
height,  but  very  robust ;  he  had  a  wide  chest,  a  thick  neck, 
blue  eyes,  thick  eyebrows,  a  flat  nose,  long  mustaches,  a  thin 
beard,  and  a  tuft  of  hair  on  his  shaven  head  as  a  mark  of  his 
nobility.  He  wore  a  gold  ring  in  one  of  his  ears,  ornamented 
with  a  ruby  and  two  pearls.  Let  us  notice  this  portrait ;  we 
shall  have  to  search  far  into  Russian  annals  to  find  another. 
Between  the  description  given  by  Leo  the  Deacon  and  those 
of  the  Russian  annalists  there  is  the  same  difference  as  be- 
tween the  image  of  a  saint  and  an  authentic  likeness. 


VLADMUR. 


Estps  lr  Laarut   Boston 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CLOVIS  AND  CHARLEMAGNE  OF  THE 
RUSSIANS,  SAINT  VLADIMIR  AND  IAROSLAF 
THE  GREAT. 

972  - 1054. 

VLADIMIR  (972-1015).  —  CONVERSION  OF  THE  RUSSIANS.  —  IAROSLAP 
THE  GREAT  (1016-1054).  —  UNION  OF  EUSSIA.  —  SPLENDOR  OF 
KIEF.  —  VARIAG-RUSSIAN  SOCIETY  AT  THE  TIME  OF  IAROSLAF. — 
PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  —  SOCIAL,  POLITICAL,  LITERARY,  AND 
ARTISTIC  RESULTS. 


VLADIMIR.  — CONVERSION  OF  THE  RUSSIANS. 

fTHHE  Slav  tribes  owe  their  organization  to  a  twofold  con- 
JL  quest,  —  a  military  conquest  which  came  from  the  North, 
an  ecclesiastical  conquest  which  came  from  the  South.  The 
Variagi  sent  them  chiefs  of  war,  who  welded  their  scattered 
clans  into  a  nation;  the  Byzantines  sent  missionaries,  who 
united  the  Slavs  among  themselves  and  to  their  civilized  neigh- 
bors by  the  bond  of  a  common  religion. 

The  man  destined  to  conclude  the  work  of  propagandism 
begun  by  Olga  did  not  at  first  seem  fitted  for  this  great  task. 
Vladimir,  like  Clovis,  was  at  first  nothing  but  a  barbarian,  — 
wily,  voluptuous,  and  bloody.  Only  while  Clovis  after  his 
baptism  is  not  perceptibly  better  than  he  was  before,  and  be- 
comes the  assassin  of  his  royal  Prankish  relations,  the  Russian 
annalist  seems  to  wish  to  establish  a  contrast  between  the  life 
led  by  Vladimir  prior  to  his  conversion  and  the  life  he  led 
after  it.  Sviatoslaf  left  three  sons :  laropolk  at  Kief,  Oleg, 
ruler  of  the  Drevliane,  Vladimir  at  Novgorod.  In  the  civil 


78  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

wars  which  followed,  and  which  recall  the  bloody  Merovingian 
anarchy,  laropolk  slew  Oleg,  and  in  his  turn  died  by  the  hand 
of  Vladimir.  He  fell  in  love  with  Rogneda,  laropolk's  be- 
trothed, and  demanded  her  in  marriage  from  the  Variag  Rog- 
volod,  who  ruled  over  Polotsk.  The  princess  answered  that 
she  would  never  marry  the  son  of  a  slave,  in  allusion  to  Vladi- 
mir's mother  having  been  a  servant,  though  he  himself  had 
always  been  treated  by  his  father  as  his  brothers'  equal. 
Maddened  by  this  insult,  Vladimir  sacked  Polotsk,  killed 
Rogvolod  and  his  two  sons,  and  forced  Rogneda  to  marry  him. 
After  the  murder  of  laropolk,  Vladimir  also  took  the  wife 
whom  laropolk  had  left  pregnant,  a  beautiful  Greek  nun, 
captured  in  an  expedition  against  Byzantium.  These  two 
women  he  had  deprived,  one  of  her  husband,  the  other  of 
her  father  and  brothers.  He  had,  besides,  a  Bohemian  and 
a  Bulgarian  wife,  and  another,  all  of  whom  bore  him  sons. 
Finally  this  bastard,  this  "  son  of  a  slave,"  was  so  abandoned 
in  his  profligacy,  that  he  kept  three  hundred  concubines  at 
Vuishegorod,  three  hundred  at  Bielgorod,  near  Kief,  and  two 
hundred  at  Berestof.  Lusting  no  less  after  war  and  plun- 
der, he  reconquered  Red  Russia  from  the  Poles,  quelled  a 
revolt  of  the  Viatitchi  and  Radimitchi,  and  exacted  tribute 
from  the  Lithuanian  latvagi  and  Livonian  tribes  of  Letts, 
or  Finns. 

This  sensual  and  passionate  barbarian's  soul  was  troubled, 
notwithstanding,  by  religious  aspirations.  At  first  he  turned  to 
the  Slav  gods,  and  his  reign  was  inaugurated  by  a  new  growth 
of  paganism.  On  the  high  sandy  cliffs  of  Kief,  which  tower 
above  the  Dnieper,  he  erected  idols ;  among  them  one  of  Perun, 
with  a  head  of  silver  and  a  beard  of  gold.  Two  Variagi, 
father  and  son,  both  Christians,  were  stabbed  at  the  feet  of 
Perun.  But  the  day  of  the  ancient  gods  was  passed ;  Vladi- 
mir was  undergoing  the  religious  crisis  in  which  all  Russia 
labored.  He  felt  that  he  must  have  another  form  of  belief ; 
so,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Nestor,  he  took  it  into  his 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND  IAROSLAF.  79 

head,  like  the  Japanese  of  to-day,  to  institute  a  search  after  the 
best  religion.  His  ambassadors  forthwith  visited  Mussulmans, 
Jews,  and  Catholics :  the  first  represented  by  the  Bulgarians 
of  the  Volga,  the  second  probably  by  the  Khazarui  or  the 
Jewish  Kharaites,  the  third  by  the  Poles  and  Germans. 
Vladimir  declined  Islamism,  which  prescribed  circumcision 
and  forbade  "  the  wine,  which  was  dear  to  the  Russians  " ; 
Judaism,  whose  disciples  wandered  through  the  earth ;  and 
Catholicism,  whose  ceremonies  appeared  wanting  in  magnifi- 
cence. The  deputies  that  he  sent  to  Constantinople,  on  the  con- 
trary, returned  awe-stricken.  The  splendors  of  Saint  Sophia, 
the  brilliancy  of  the  priestly  vestments,  the  magnificence  of  the 
ceremonies,  heightened  by  the  presence  of  the  emperor  and 
his  court,  the  patriarch  and  the  numerous  clergy,  the  incense, 
the  religious  songs,  had  powerfully  appealed  to  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  barbarians.  One  final  argument  triumphed  over 
the  scruples  of  Vladimir.  "  If  the  Greek  religion  had  not 
been  the  best,  your  grandmother  Olga,  the  wisest  of  mortals, 
would  not  have  adopted  it,"  said  the  boyars.  The  proud 
Vladimir  did  not  intend  to  beg  for  baptism  at  the  hands  of  the 
Greeks,  —  he  would  conquer  it  by  his  own  arms,  and  ravish 
it  like  booty.  He  descended  into  the  Taurid  and  besieged 
Kherson,  the  last  city  of  this  region  that  remained  subject  to 
the  emperors.  A  certain  Anastasius,  possibly  from  religious 
motives,  betrayed  his  country.  Rendered  prouder  than  ever 
by  this  important  conquest,  Vladimir  sent  an  embassy  to  the 
Greek  emperors,  Basil  and  Constantine,  demanding  their  sister 
Anna  in  marriage,  and  threatening,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  march 
on  Constantinople.  It  was  not  the  first  time  the  barbarians 
had  made  this  proposal  to  the  Greek  Caesars,  and  Constantine 
Porphyrogenitus  himself  teaches  his  successors  how  to  get  rid 
of  these  inconvenient  demands.  But  on  this  occasion  the 
emperors,  who  were  occupied  with  revolts  in  the  interior, 
thought  themselves  driven  to  consent,  on  condition  that  Vladi- 
mir should  be  baptized.  It  was  in  Kherson  that  the  Russian 


80  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

prince  received  baptism,  and  celebrated  his  marriage  with  the 
heiress  of  the  emperors  of  Rome.  The  priests  he  brought  to 
Kief  were  his  captives ;  the  sacred  ornaments,  the  holy  relics 
with  which  he  enriched  and  sanctified  his  capital,  were  his 
booty.  When  he  returned  to  Kief  it  was  in  the  character  of 
an  apostle,  but  of  an  armed  apostle,  that  he  catechized  his 
people.  The  idols  were  overthrown  amid  the  tears  and  fright 
of  the  people.  Perun  was  flogged  and  thrown  into  the 
Dnieper.  They  still  show  on  the  side  of  the  Kievan  cliffs  the 
rock  called  "  The  Devil's  Leap  "  ;  and  farther  away,  the  place 
where  Perun  was  thrown  up  by  the  waters  on  the  shore.  The 
people  instantly  rushed  to  worship  him,  but  the  soldiers  of 
Vladimir  cast  him  back  into  the  river.  Then,  by  Vladimir's 
order,  all  the  Kievans,  men  and  women,  masters  and  slaves, 
old  people  and  little  children,  plunged  naked  into  the  conse- 
crated waters  of  the  old  pagan  stream,  while  the  Greek  priests 
standing  on  the  bank  with  Vladimir  read  the  baptismal  ser- 
vice. After  a  sturdy  resistance,  the  Novgorodians  were  in 
like  manner  forced  to  hurl  Perun  into  the  Volkhof,  and  then 
be  immersed  in  it  themselves. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  Russians  had  not  lost  all 
recollections  of  their  ancient  gods,  and  that  nature  was  still 
the  home  of  a  whole  world  of  deities.  A  long  time  had  to 
pass  before  Christianity  could  penetrate  into  their  hearts  and 
customs.  M.  Buslaef  assures  us  that,  even  in  the  twelfth 
century,  Christian  rites  were  practised  only  by  the.  higher 
classes.  The  peasants  kept  their  old  pagan  ceremonies,  and 
continued  to  contract  their  marriages  "  around  the  bush  of 
broom."  They  preserved  even  longer  their  faith  in  magicians 
and  sorcerers,  who  were  often  of  more  authority  than  the 
priests.  Vladimir,  at  any  rate,  wished  to  prepare  the  trans- 
formation. It  does  not  appear  that  he  persecuted  the  idola- 
ters, but  he  occupied  himself  in  adorning  the  churches  of  his 
capital,  which  he  had  shorn  of  its  idols.  On  the  spot  where 
Perun  stood  he  built  the  Church  of  Saint  Basil,  the  Greek 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND  IAROSLAF.  81 

name  which  he  had  taken  at  his  baptism.  On  the  place 
where  the  two  Variag  martyrs  had  been  slain  by  his  orders  he 
raised  the  Church  of  the  Desiatina  or  the  Tithe,  embellished 
and  ornamented  with  Greek  inscriptions  by  artists  who  came 
from  the  South.  He  founded  schools,  where  boys  studied  the 
Holy  Books  translated  into  Slavonic,  but  he  was  obliged  to 
compel  the  attendance  of  the  children,  whose  parents,  convinced 
that  writing  was  a  dangerous  kind  of  magic,  shed  tears  of 
despair.  Nestor  cannot  sufficiently  praise  the  reformation  of 
Vladimir  after  his  baptism.  He  was  faithful  to  his  Greek 
wife,  he  no  longer  loved  war,  he  distributed  his  revenues  to 
the  churches  and  to  the  poor,  and,  in  spite  of  the  increase 
of  crime,  hesitated  to  inflict  capital  punishment.  "  I  fear 
to  sin,"  he  replied  to  his  councillors.  It  was  the  bishops 
who  had  to  recall  to  him  the  fact  that  "  criminals  must  be 
chastised,  though  with  discretion,"  and  that  the  country  must 
not  be  left  a  prey  to  the  Petchenegi.  Vladimir,  who  in  his 
earlier  life  reminded  us  of  a  Northman  of  the  type  of  Robert 
the  Devil,  suddenly  becomes  the  "good  King  Robert"  of 
Russia. 

His  wars  with  the  Petchenegi  are  recorded  by  Nestor  with 
all  kinds  of  episodes  borrowed  from  the  epic  poetry.  There 
is  the  Russian  champion  who  tears  in  pieces  the  furious  bull, 
or  stifles  a  Petcheneg  giant  in  his  arms ;  there  are  the  inhab- 
itants of  Bielgorod,  who,  having  been  reduced  to  famine  by 
the  barbarians,  let  down  into  wells  two  large  caldrons,  one 
full  of  hydromel  and  the  other  of  meal,  to  make  the  Petchenegi 
believe  these  were  natural  productions  of  the  soil.  We  see 
in  the  popular  songs  of  what  a  marvellous  cycle  of  legends 
Vladimir  has  become  the  centre ;  but  in  these  poems  he  is 
neither  Vladimir  the  Baptist,  nor  the  Saint  Vladimir  of  the 
orthodox  Church,  but  a  solar  hero,  successor  of  the  divinities 
whom  he  destroyed.  To  the  people,  still  pagans  at  heart, 
Vladimir  is  always  the  "  Beautiful  Sun  "  of  Kief. 

VOL.    I.  6 


82  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 


IAKOSLAF  THE  GREAT.  —  UNION  OF  RUSSIA.  —  SPLENDOR 

OF  KIEF. 

Vladimir  died  in  ten  hundred  and  fifteen,  leaving  a  large 
number  of  heirs  by  his  numerous  wives.  The  partition  that 
he  made  among  them  of  his  states  tells  us  what  was  the  ex- 
tent of  Russia  at  that  epoch.  To  laroslaf  he  gave  Novgorod ; 
Polotsk  to  Isiaslaf,  son  of  Rogneda,  arid  grandson  of  the  Va- 
riag  Rogvolod ;  to  Boris,  Rostof;  to  Gleb,  Murom,  these  last 
two  principalities  being  in  the  Finn  country;  to  Sviatoslaf, 
the  Drevliane ;  to  Vsevolod,  Vladimir  in  Volhynia ;  to  Msti- 
slaf,  Tmutorakan,  the  Tamatarchia  of  the  Greeks ;  finally,  to 
his  nephew  Sviatopolk,  the  son  of  his  brother  and  victim 
laropolk,  the  principality  of  Turof,  in  the  country  of  Minsk, 
founded  by  a  Variag  named  Tur,  who  did  not  belong  to  the 
"  blood  of  princes  "  any  more  than  Askold  and  Dir.  The  his- 
tory of  Vladimir's  successors  recalls  that  of  the  heirs  of  Clovis. 
The  murder  of  the  sons  of  Clodomir  is  paralleled  by  the  assas- 
sination of  Boris  and  Gleb,  sons  of  Vladimir,  by  the  order  of 
Sviatopolk,  who  usurped  the  throne  of  Kief.  His  two  victims 
were  canonized,  and  henceforth  became  inseparable  in  the 
orthodox  calendar.  The  prince  of  the  Drevliane  perished  by 
the  same  hand.  laroslaf  resolved  to  avenge  his  brothers  and 
to  save  himself.  At  this  moment,  however,  he  had  alienated 
his  Novgorodian  subjects,  having  enticed  the  principal  citizens 
into  his  castle,  and  then  treacherously  slain  them.  When  he 
learnt  the  crimes  of  Sviatopolk,  he  trembled  for  his  own  life, 
and  threw  himself  on  the  generosity  of  those  he  had  so  cruelly 
outraged.  He  wept  for  his  sins  before  them,  and  besought 
their  help.  "Prince,"  replied  the  Novgorodians,  with  one 
voice,  "  you  have  destroyed  our  brethren,  but  we  are  ready  to 
fight  for  you."  After  a  bloody  war,  in  which  Boleslas  the 
Brave,  king  of  Poland,  took  part,  the  usurper  fled,  and  died 
miserably  in  exile.  laroslaf  had  still  to  defend  himself  against 
the  Prince  of  Polotsk  and  Mstislaf  of  Tmutorakan.  The  latter 


IAROSLAF. 


Lauriir     Boston. 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND  IAROSLAF.  83 

had  acquired  great  fame  from  his  wars  with  the  Khazarui, 
whom,  with  the  aid  of  the  Greek  emperor,  Basil  the  Second, 
he  finally  annihilated,  and  with  the  Tcherkesui,  whose  chief,  a 
giant  named  Rhededia,  he  slew  in  single  combat.  At  last, 
laroslaf  remained  the  sole  master  of  Russia,  and  reigned  glo- 
riously at  Kief.  He  recalls  Charles  the  Great  by  some  suc- 
cessful wars,  but  particularly  by  his  code  of  laws,  his  taste  for 
building,  and  his  love  of  letters  in  a  barbarous  age.  He  owes 
part  of  his  reputation  to  the  anarchy  which  followed  his  death, 
and  which  caused  his  reign  to  be  regretted  as  the  climax  of 
Kievan  greatness. 

In  Poland  laroslaf  revenged  on  the  son  of  Boleslas  the  Brave 
his  father's  invasions,  and  took  from  him  the  towns  of  Red 
Russia.  He  fought  a  bloody  battle  with  the  Petchenegi  under 
the  walls  of  Kief,  and  in  their  flight  part  of  the  vanquished 
barbarians  were  drowned  in  crossing  the  rivers.  It  was  as 
fatal  a  blow  to  the  Petchenegi  as  that  struck  by  Sviatoslaf  at 
the  Khazarui :  they  never  recovered  from  it.  But  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  defeat  of  the  Khazarui  opened  the  way  to  the 
Petchenegi,  the  ruin  of  the  Petchenegi  opened  the  way  to  the 
Polovtsui.  The  steppes  of  the  Don  were  incessantly  filled  by 
new  hordes  from  Asia.  laroslaf  also  fought  against  the  Fin- 
nish and  Lithuanian  tribes.  In  the  country  of  the  Tchudi  he 
founded  lurief,  or  Saint  George,  called  Dorpat  by  the  Germans, 
on  the  Embach,  near  the  Peipus ;  in  the  country  of  the  Meria 
he  founded  laroslavl  on  the  Upper  Volga.  Finally,  his  reign 
was  marked  by  a  new  war  with  Greece,  brought  on  by  mer- 
cantile disputes.  His  son  Vladimir,  leader  of  the  expedition, 
rejected  proudly  the  propositions  of  the  Emperor  Constantino 
Monomachus.  A  naval  battle  was  fought  in  the  Bosphorus ; 
Greek  fire  and  the  tempests  of  the  Black  Sea  dispersed  the 
Russian  armament.  Part  of  the  army,  a  body  of  eight  thou- 
sand men,  which  was  retreating  into  Russia  by  land,  was 
attacked  and  exterminated  by  a  Greek  force :  eight  hundred 
prisoners  were  sent  to  Constantinople,  where  their  eyes  were 


84  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

put  out.  Notwithstanding  the  bonds  of  religion  which  had 
been  riveted  between  the  Byzantines  and  their  neophytes  on 
the  Dnieper,  the  Russians  were  always  dreaded  by  Constanti- 
nople. An  inscription  hidden  in  the  boot  of  one  of  the  eques- 
trian statues  of  Byzantium  announced  that  the  day  would 
come  when  the  capital  of  the  empire  would  fall  a  prey  to  the 
men  of  the  North.  The  decay  of  Kievan  Russia  after  the 
death  of  laroslaf  put  off  to  a  later  day  or  nullified  the  fulfil- 
ment of  this  prophecy. 

The  legislation  of  the  Russian  Charlemagne  is  comprised 
in  the  Code  entitled  Rttsska'ia  Pravda,  the  Russian  Right 
or  Verity.  This  Code  strangely  recalls  the  Scandinavian.  It 
sanctions  private  revenge,  and  the  pursuit  of  an  assassin  by  all 
the  relatives  of  the  dead  ;  it  fixes  the  fine  for  different  crimes, 
as  well  as  the  fine  paid  into  the  royal  treasury ;  it  allows  the 
judicial  duel ;  the  ordeal  by  red-hot  iron  and  boiling  water ; 
the  oath  corroborated  by  those  of  the  Compurgatores ;  it  also 
established  by  the  side  of  the  judges  nominated  by  the  Prince 
a  jury  of  twelve  citizens.  In  the  "  Russkai'a  Pravda  "  there 
is  not,  properly  speaking,  any  criminal  law.  Capital  punish- 
ment, death  by  refinements  of  cruelty,  corporal  chastisement, 
torture  to  wring  out  confessions,  even  a  public  prison,  were 
all  unknown.  These  are  Scandinavian  and  German  principles 
in  all  their  purity.  At  this  period  Russia  had  almost  the 
same  laws  as  the  West. 

laroslaf  occupied  a  glorious  place  among  the  princes  of  his 
time.  His  sister  Maria  was  married  to  Kasimir,  King  of  Po- 
land ;  his  daughters  also  became  the  wives  of  kings  :  Elisabeth, 
of  Harold  the  Brave,  King  of  Norway ;  Anna,  of  Henry  the 
First,  King  of  France ;  Anastasia,  of  Andrew  the  First,  King 
of  Hungary.  Of  his  sons,  Vladimir,  the  eldest,  is  said  to  have 
married  Githa,  daughter  of  Harold,  King  of  England  ;  Isiaslaf, 
a  daughter  of  Micislas  the  Second,  King  of  Poland  ;  Vseslaf,  a 
Greek  princess,  daughter  of  Constantino  Monomachus;  Via- 
tcheslaf  and  Igor,  two  German  princesses.  laroslaf  gave  an 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND   IAROSLAF.  85 

asylum  to  the  proscribed  princes,  Saint  Olaf,  King  of  Norway, 
and  his  two  sons  ;  a  prince  of  Sweden ;  Edwin  and  Edward, 
sons  of  Edmund  Ironside,  King  of  England,  expelled  from 
their  country  by  Knut  the  Great.  The  Variag  dynasty  was 
thus  mingled  with  the  families  of  the  Christian  princes,  and 
we  may  say  of  the  Russia  of  the  eleventh  century,  what  we 
can  no  longer  say  of  the  Russia  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that 
it  was  a  European  state. 

To  Kief  was  destined  the  lot  of  Aachen,  the  capital  of 
Charles  the  Great,  which,  glorious  in  his  life,  after  his  death 
fell  into  decay.  Under  laroslaf,  Kief  reached  the  highest  pin- 
nacle of  splendor.  He  wished  to  make  his  capital  the  rival  of 
Constantinople ;  like  Byzantium,  it  had  its  cathedral  and  its 
Golden  Gate.  The  Grand  Prince  also  founded  the  monastery 
of  Saint  Irene,  of  which  only  a  few  ruins  now  remain,  and 
those  of  Saint  George  and  the  Catacombs,  the  latter  made 
illustrious  by  the  virtues  of  its  first  superiors,  Saint  Theodosius 
and  Saint  Antony.  He  repaired  the  church  of  the  Tithe,  and 
surrounded  the  city  with  ramparts.  The  population  began  to 
increase,  and  the  lower  town  to  grow  at  the  feet  of  the  upper. 
Kief,  situated  on  the  Dnieper,  the  great  road  to  Byzantium, 
seemed  to  be  part  of  Greece.  Adam  of  Bremen  calls  it  amida 
sceptri  Constantinopolitani  et  darissimum  decus  Gr&ciae.  It 
was  the  rendezvous  of  the  merchants  from  Holland,  Hungary, 
Germany,  and  Scandinavia,  who  lived  in  separate  quarters  of 
the  town.  It  had  eight  markets,  and  the  Dnieper  was  con- 
stantly covered  with  merchant-ships.  laroslaf  had  not  enough 
Greek  artists  to  decorate  all  the  churches,  nor  enough  priests 
to  serve  them,  for  Kief  was  at  that  time  "  the  city  of  four  hun- 
dred churches,"  so  much  admired  by  the  writers  of  the  West. 
What  it  was  then  we  may  partly  realize  by  seeing  what  it  is 
still  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  The  Monastery  of  the 
Catacombs,  with  the  incorruptible  bodies  of  its  ascetics  and 
miracle-workers,  some  of  whom  bricked  themselves  up,  while 
living,  in  the  cell  which  was  to  be  their  sepulchre,  draws 


86  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

annually,  and  especially  at  the  Feast  of  the  Assumption,  fifty 
thousand  pilgrims.  Saint  Sophia  was  the  pride  of  Kief;  the 
mosaics  of  the  time  of  laroslat  still  exist,  and  the  traveller 
may  admire,  on  the  "  indestructible  wall,"  the  colossal  image 
of  the  Mother  of  God,  the  Last  Supper,  with  a  double  appari- 
tion of  Christ,  presenting  to  six  of  his  disciples  his  body,  and  to 
six  others  his  blood,  the  images  of  Saints  and  Doctors,  and  the 
Angel  of  the  Annunciation.  The  frescos  which  have  been  pre- 
served or  carefully  restored  are  still  numerous,  and  everywhere 
cover  the  pillars,  the  walls,  and  the  vaulted  ceilings  of  gold. 
The  inscriptions  are  not  in  Slavonic,  but  in  Greek.  laroslaf 
did  not  forget  Novgorod,  his  first  residence,  and  there  he  built 
another  Saint  Sophia,  one  of  the  most  precious  monuments  of 
Russian  antiquity.  Like  Charles  the  Great,  he  set  up  schools. 
Vladimir  had  founded  one  at  Kief;  laroslaf  instituted  that  of 
Novgorod  for  three  hundred  boys.  He  sent  for  Greek  singers 
from  Byzantium,  who  taught  the  Russian  clergy.  Coins  were 
struck  for  him  by  Greek  artists,  with  his  Slavonic  name,  luri, 
in  Slav  on  one  side,  and  his  Christian  name,  Georgios,  on  the 
other.  Like  all  other  barbarian  neophytes,  laroslaf  carried 
devotion  into  superstition.  He  caused  the  bones  of  his  uncles, 
who  had  died  unconverted,  to  be  disinterred  and  baptized.  He 
died  in  ten  hundred  and  fifty-four,  and  his  stone  sarcophagus 
is  one  of  the  most  precious  ornaments  of  Saint  Sophia. 

VARIAG-RUSSIAN  SOCIETY  AT  THE  TIME  OF  LAROSLAF. 

Variag-Russian  society  presents  more  than  one  analogy 
with  the  society  which  was  developed  in  Gaul  after  the  Frank 
conquest.  The  government  of  the  Variag  princes  somewhat 
resembled  that  of  the  Merovingian  kings. 

The  germ  of  the  future  state  lay  in  the  drujina,  the  band 
of  warriors  surrounding  the  prince,  as  in  Gaul  it  lay  in  the 
truste.  The  drujinniki,  like  the  antrustions,  were  the  faithful 
followers,  the  men  of  the  prince.  They  formed  his  guard, 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND   IAROSLAF.  87 

and  were  his  natural  council  in  all  affairs,  public  or  private. 
He  could  constitute  them  a  court  of  justice,  nominate  them 
individually  vo'ievodui,  or  governors  of  fortresses,  or  posadniki, 
or  lieutenants  in  the  large  towns.  In  the  same  way  as  the 
body  surrounding  the  Merovingian  kings  was  not  composed 
so  entirely  of  Franks  but  that  shortly  Gallo-Romans  crept 
into  the  antrustions,  so  the  drujina  of  the  Russian  princes 
admitted  many  different  elements,  not  only  Variag  but  Slav. 
Mstislaf,  prince  of  Tmutorakan,  had  enrolled  lasui  and  Kas- 
sogans  ;  a  Lithuanian  latviag  is  mentioned  as  being  in  the 
drujina  of  Igor,  a  Hungarian  in  that  of  Boris.  The  military 
class  did  not  form  at  that  time  a  close  caste  in  Russia  any 
more  than  in  Gaul ;  Saint  Vladimir  took  into  his  service  the 
son  of  a  leather-worker  who  had  vanquished  the  Petcheneg 
giant ;  his  maternal  uncle,  Dobruina,  was  not  even  a  free  man. 

The  prince  in  the  midst  of  his  drujina  seems  to  be  only  the 
first  among  his  equals  ;  all  that  he  had  seems  to  have  belonged 
to  his  men.  We  see  them  eat  at  the  same  table,  and  listen  to- 
gether to  the  songs  of  the  blind  poets  who  accompanied  them- 
selves on  the  gusli.  It  was,  as  it  were,  a  family  of  soldiers, 
from  which  one  day  the  Russian  administration  was  to  come. 
The  prince  had  great  respect  for  the  demands  of  his  men. 
Those  of  Vladimir  complained  one  day  that  they  had  to  eat 
from  wooden  bowls.  He  gave  them  silver  ones,  and  added, 
"  I  could  not  buy  myself  a  drujina  with  gold  and  silver ;  but 
with  a  drujina  I  can  acquire  gold  and  silver,  as  did  my 
father  and  my  grandfather."  The  prince  did  nothing  with- 
out consulting  his  drujinniki.  It  was  this  that  prevented 
Sviatoslaf  from  listening  to  the  exhortations  of  Olga  ;  he  said 
that  "  his  drujina  would  mock  him  "  if  he  became  a  Chris- 
tian. 

The  administration  of  the  Variag  princes  was  very  elemen- 
tary. Let  us  see  what  the  Arab  writer  Ibn-Dost  says  of  the 
way  they  distributed  justice  :  "  When  a  Russian  has  a  griev- 
ance with  another,  he  summons  him  before  the  tribunal  of  the 


88  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

prince,  where  both  present  themselves.  When  the  prince  has 
given  sentence,  his  orders  are  executed ;  if  both  parties  are 
displeased  by  the  judgment,  the  affair  must  be  decided  by 
arms.  He  whose  sword  cuts  sharpest  gains  his  cause.  At 
the  moment  of  the  combat  the  relations  of  the  two  adversaries 
appear  armed,  and  surround  the  space  shut  off.  The  com- 
batants then  come  to  blows,  and  the  victor  may  impose  any 
conditions  he  pleases." 

After  justice,  the  most  important  of  the  princely  func- 
tions was  the  collection  of  the  tributes.  The  amount  was 
fixed  by  the  prince  himself.  Oleg  imposed  on  the  Drevliane 
a  tax  of  a  marten's  skin  for  every  house.  The  levy  of  taxes 
was  always  very  arbitrary.  Nestor's  account  of  the  death  of 
Igor  is  a  lively  picture  of  the  political  customs  of  the  time ; 
we  might  imagine  ourselves  reading  a  page  of  Gregory  of 
Tours  about  the  sons  of  Clovis,  for  example,  Thierry's  expedi- 
tion in  Arvernia.  "  In  the  year  nine  hundred  and  forty-five 
the  drujina  of  Igor  said  to  him,  '  The  men  of  Sventeld  are 
richly  provided  with  weapons  and  garments,  while  we  go 
naked ;  lead  us,  prince,  to  collect  the  tribute,  so  that  thou  and 
we  may  become  rich.'  Igor  consented,  and  conducted  them 
to  the  Drevliane  to  raise  the  tribute.  He  increased  the  first 
imposts,  and  did  them  violence,  he  and  his  men  ;  after  having 
taken  all  he  wanted,  he  returned  to  his  city.  While  on  the 
road  he  bethought  himself  and  said  to  his  drujina,  '  Go  on 
with  the  tribute ;  I  will  go  back  to  try  and  get  some  more 
out  of  them.'  Leaving  the  greater  part  of  his  men  to  go  on 
their  way,  he  returned  with  only  a  few,  to  the  end  that  he 
might  increase  his  riches.  The  Drevliane,  when  they  learnt 
that  Igor  was  returning,  held  council  with  Mai,  their  prince. 
'  When  the  wolf  enters  the  sheepfold  he  slays  the  whole  flock, 
if  the  shepherd  does  not  slay  him.  Thus  it  is  with  us  and 
Igor  ;  if  we  do  not  destroy  him,  we  are  lost.'  Then  they  sent 
deputies  and  said  to  him,  '  Why  dost  thou  come  anew  unto 
us?  Hast  thou  not  collected  all  the  tribute?'  But  Igor 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND  IAEOSLAF.  89 

would  not  hear  them,  so  the  Drevliane  came  out  of  the  town  of 
Korosten,  and  slew  Igor  and  his  men,  for  they  were  but  a  few." 

For  the  government  and  defence  of  the  country  the  prince 
established  the  chief  of  his  drujinniki  in  different  towns,  sup- 
ported by  adequate  forces.  Thus  Rurik  distributed  the  towns 
of  his  appanage ;  he  gave  to  one  of  his  men  Polotsk,  to  an- 
other Rostof,  to  a  third  Bielozersk.  A  principality  was  in 
some  sort  divided  into  fiefs,  but  the  fiefs  were  only  tempo- 
rary, and  always  revocable.  For  the  defence  of  the  frontiers 
new  towns  were  built,  where  native  soldiers  kept  watch. 

Social  conditions  from  the  ninth  to  the  twelfth  century 
were  as  unequal  as  in  the  West.  The  prince's  drujina,  which 
speedily  absorbed  all  the  Slav  and  Finn  chiefs,  constituted  an 
aristocracy.  Still  we  must  distinguish  in  it  three  orders  of 
rank,  the  simple  guards,  the  men  corresponding  to  the  French 
barons,  and  the  boyars,  who  were  the  most  illustrious  of  all. 
The  freemen  of  the  Russian  soil  were  "  the  people."  The 
merchants  were  not  at  this  period  a  distinct  class  ;  it  was,  in 
fact,  the  warriors  or  the  princes  who  pursued  commerce  with 
arms  in  their  hands.  Oleg  was  disguised  as  a  merchant  when 
he  surprised  Kief  and  slew  Askold  and  Dir ;  the  Byzantines 
mistrusted  these  terrible  guests,  and  assigned  them  a  separate 
quarter,  in  Constantinople,  which  was  strictly  watched. 

The  rural  population,  on  whom  the  weight  of  the  growing 
state  was  beginning  to  rest,  was  already  less  free  than  in 
primitive  times.  The  peasant  was  called  smerd,  a  word  per- 
haps derived  from  smerdief,  to  stink,  or  muzhik,  the  insulting 
diminutive  of  muzh,  man.  Later  he  became  the  Christian 
par  excellence,  krestianin. 

Below  the  peasant,  whose  situation  recalls  that  of  the  Roman 
colonus,  were  the  slaves  properly  so  called.  The  slave  might 
have  been  taken  in  war,  bought  in  a  market,  born  in  the  house 
of  his  master,  or  have  lost  his  liberty  by  the  mere  fact  of  filling 
certain  offices,  such  as  that  of  house-steward.  War  was,  how- 
ever, the  principal  source  of  slavery.  Ibn-Dost  relates  that  the 


90  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

Russians,  when  they  marched  against  another  people,  did  not 
depart  without  having  destroyed  everything ;  they  carried  off 
the  women,  and  reduced  the  men  to  slavery.  They  main- 
tained a  great  slave-trade  with  foreign  nations.  "From 
Russia,"  said  Sviatoslaf,  the  conqueror  of  Bulgaria,  "  will  be 
brought  skins,  wax,  honey,  and  slaves." 


PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  —  SOCIAL,  POLITICAL,  LITER- 
ARY, AND  ARTISTIC  RESULTS. 

Russia  had  become  Christian :  it  is  the  chief  event  in  its 
primitive  history.  An  important  fact  is  that  its  Christianity 
was  received  not  from  Rome,  like  that  of  the  Poles  and  other 
Western  Slavs,  but  from  Constantinople.  Although  the  sepa- 
ration between  the  churches  of  the  East  and  West  was  not 
yet  fully  consummated,  it  was  evident  that  Russia  would  be 
engaged  in  what  the  Latins  called  "  the  schism."  It  is  usu- 
ally considered  in  the  West  that  this  fact  exercised  an  evil 
influence  on  Russia.  But  let  us  see  the  opinion  of  a  Russian 
historian,  M.  Bestujef-Riumin,  on  the  subject.  "  What  is  no 
less  important  is,  that  Christianity  came  to  us  from  Byzantium, 
where  the  Church  put  forth  no  pretensions  of  governing  the 
State,  a  circumstance  which  preserved  us  from  struggles  be- 
tween the  secular,  a  national,  and  the  spiritual,  a  foreign  power. 
Excluded  from  the  religious  unity  of  the  Romano-Germanic 
world,  we  have  perhaps  gained  more  than  we  have  lost.  The 
Roman  Church  made  its  appearance  with  German  missionaries 
in  Slavonic  lands ;  and  if  it  did  not  everywhere  bring  with  it 
material  servitude,  at  least  it  introduced  an  intellectual  slavery 
by  forcing  men  to  support  foreign  interests,  by  bringing 
among  them  foreign  elements,  and  by  establishing  in  all  parts 
a  sharp  division  between  the  higher  classes  who  wrote  and 
spoke  in  Latin,  and  the  lower  classes  who  spoke  the  national 
tongue  and  were  without  literature." 

No  doubt  an  ecclesiastical  language  which,  thanks  to  Cyril 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND   IAROSLAF.  91 

and  Methodius,  mingled  with  the  national  language,  and  be- 
came intelligible  to  all  classes  of  society;  a  purely  national 
Church,  which  was  subject  to  no  foreign  sway ;  the  absolute 
independence  of  the  civil  power  and  of  national  development, 
were  the  inestimable  advantages  that  Byzantine  Christianity 
brought  into  Russia.  But  if  the  Russian  State  was  free  from 
all  obligations  to  Rome,  it  had  nothing  to  hope  for  from 
Rome.  It  could  not  reckon  in  its  days  of  peril  on  the  help 
that  Spain  received  when  it  grappled  with  the  Moors ;  Ger- 
many in  its  crusades  against  the  Slavs  and  Finns ;  Hungary 
in  its  national  war  with  the  Turks.  Separated  from  the  West 
by  difference  of  faith,  Russia  in  the  time  of  the  Mongols,  like 
Greece  at  the  epoch  of  the  Ottoman  invasion,  saw  no  Europe 
arming  in  its  defence. 

Its  princes  were  neither  laid  under  the  pontifical  interdicts, 
like  Robert  of  France,  nor  reduced  to  implore  pardon  at  the 
feet  of  a  Gregory  the  Seventh,  like  Henry  the  Fourth  of  Ger- 
many ;  humiliations  always  followed  by  a  swift  revenge,  as  on 
the  day  when  Barbarossa  expelled  Alexander  the  Third  from 
Italy,  and  Philip  the  Handsome  caused  Boniface  to  be  arrested 
in  Anagni.  Humiliations  still  more  cruel  awaited  the  Russians 
at  the  Court  of  the  Mongols.  Another  misfortune  attending 
the  entrance  of  the  Russians  into  the  Greek  Church  is,  that 
they  found  themselves  separated  by  religion  from  the  races  to 
whom  they  were  bound  by  a  common  origin,  and  who  spoke 
almost  their  own  tongue.  It  was  the  difference  of  religion 
which  inflamed  their  long  rivalry  with  the  Poles,  and  which  at 
present  deprives  them  of  much  influence  over  part  of  the  Slavs. 
This  same  difference  of  religion  delayed  for  them  the  benefits  of 
civilization  resulting  from  the  Renaissance  of  the  West,  but  it 
spared  them  the  terrible  crisis  of  the  wars  of  the  Reformation. 

Oriental  Christianity,  with  the  Byzantine  civilization  that 
was  inseparable  from  it,  produced  in  time  a  considerable  trans- 
formation in  Russia.  The  first  effect  of  Christianity  was  to 
reform  society,  and  draw  closer  family  ties.  It  condemned 


92  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  A'. 

polygamy,  and  forbade  equal  divisions  between  the  children 
of  a  slave  and  those  of  the  lawful  wife.  Society  resisted  this 
new  principle  for  some  time.  Saint  Vladimir,  even  after  his 
conversion,  divided  his  possessions  equally  between  the  chil- 
dren the  Church  regarded  as  natural  and  those  she  considered 
legitimate.  In  the  long  run  Christianity  prevailed,  and  by 
the  abolition  of  polygamy  the  Russian  family  ceased  to  be 
Asiatic,  and  became  European. 

Christianity  prescribed  new  virtues,  and  gave  the  ancient 
barbaric  virtues  of  hospitality  and  benevolence  a  more  elevated 
character. 

Vladimir  Monomakh  charged  his  children  to  receive  stran- 
gers hospitably,  because,  says  he,  they  have  it  in  their  power 
to  give  you  a  good  or  evil  reputation.  The  hospitality  of 
primitive  peoples  may  often  be  explained  by  their  need  of 
merchants  and  foreigners.  Pagan  Slavs  were  obliged  to  help 
only  those  of  the  same  association ;  warriors  would  assist  the 
members  of  the  same  drujina ;  peasants,  members  of  the  same 
commune ;  merchants  or  artisans,  members  of  the  same  union. 
Christianity  enjoined  benevolence  to  all  the  world,  without 
hope  of  reward  in  this  life.  It  rendered  weakness,  poverty, 
manual  labor,  honorable.  If  it  prescribed  excessive  humility, 
it  was  useful  at  least  as  a  reaction  against  the  brutality  of 
overweening  pride.  Between  these  two  societies,  aristocratic 
and  religious,  which  rest  on  opposite  and  equally  exaggerated 
principles,  there  would  one  day  be  room  for  lay  and  civil 
society. 

The  influence  of  Christian  principles  was  rather  slow  among 
these  excitable  and  ardent  natures,  but  at  last  we  see  in  Russia, 
as  in  the  West,  princes  abjure  their  pride  and  seek  the  peace 
of  the  cloister,  like  the  good  King  Robert,  or  Saint  Henry. 
In  the  end  it  became  an  .established  custom  with  the  Russian 
sovereigns  that,  on  the  approach  of  death,  they  should  be 
tonsured,  change  their  worldly  for  a  monkish  name,  and  so  die 
in  the  garb  of  one  of  the  religious  orders. 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND   IAROSLAF.  93 

From  a  political  point  of  view  the  influence  of  Byzantine 
Christianity  was  bound  in  the  long  run  to  cause  a  complete 
revolution.  For  what  was  a  Russian  prince,  after  all,  but 
the  head  of  a  band,  surrounded  by  the  men  of  his  drujina,  and 
in  a  sense  a  stranger  in  the  land  he  governed  and  on  which 
he  levied  tribute  ?  Properly  speaking,  a  Russian  prince  had 
no  subjects.  The  natives  had  the  power  at  any  time  to  expel 
him,  —  his  drujinniki  were  always  free  to  forsake  him. 

The  princes  of  Kief  were  no  more  sovereigns  in  the  modern 
or  Roman  sense  of  the  term  than  Merwig  or  Clodowig  the 
Long-haired.  But  the  priests  who  came  from  Constantinople 
brought  with  them  an  ideal  of  government ;  in  a  little  while 
it  was  that  of  the  Russians  who  entered  the  ranks  of  the  clergy. 
This  Greek  ideal  was  the  Emperor,  the  Tsar  of  Constantinople, 
heir  of  Augustus  and  Constantine  the  Great,  God's  Vicar  upon 
earth,  the  typical  monarch  on  whom  the  eyes  of  the  barbarians 
of  Gaul  as  well  as  those  of  Scythia  were  fixed.  He  was  a 
sovereign  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word.  He  had  subjects, 
and  subjects  only.  He  alone  made  the  law ;  he  was  the  law. 
He  had  neither  drujinniki  nor  antrustions  that  he  placed  in 
such  and  such  a  town,  but  a  host  of  movable  functionaries,  the 
inviolate  Roman  hierarchy,  by  means  of  whom  his  all-power- 
ful will  penetrated  to  the  remotest  parts  of  his  dominions.  He 
was  not  the  leader  of  a  band  of  exacting  soldiers,  free  to  quit 
his  service  for  that  of  another,  but  master  of  a  standing  army, 
to  guard  both  frontiers  and  capital.  He  did  not  consider  his 
states  as  a  patrimony  to  be  divided  between  his  children,  but 
transmitted  to  his  successor  the  Roman  Empire  in  its  integrity. 
He  inherited  his  power,  not  only  from  his  people,  but  from 
God.  His  imperial  ornaments  had,  like  his  person,  a  sacred 
character :  and  whenever  the  barbarian  kings  demanded  one 
of  them  at  Constantinople,  either  the  crown  enriched  with 
precious  stones,  the  purple  mantle,  the  sceptre,  or  the  leggings, 
they  were  answered,  that  when  God  gave  the  empire  to  Con- 
stantinople, he  sent  these  vestments  by  a  holy  angel ;  that 


94  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  V. 

they  were  not  the  work  of  man,  and  that  they  were  laid  on 
the  altar,  and  worn,  even  by  the  emperor,  only  on  solemn 
occasions.  Leo  the  Khazar  was  said  to  have  been  smitten  with 
a  fatal  ulcer  for  having  put  on  the  crown  without  permission 
of  the  patriarch. 

An  empire  one  and  indivisible,  resting  on  a  standing  army, 
a  hierarchy  of  functionaries,  a  national  clergy,  and  a  body  of 
jurisconsults,  —  such  was  the  Roman  Empire,  and  on  the 
same  model  the  monarchies  of  the  seventeenth  century  were 
constructed.  This  was  the  conception  of  the  State,  unknown 
to  both  Slavs  and  Variagi,  that  the  Greek  priests  brought  to 
Russia.  For  a  long  time  the  reality  showed  little  to  corre- 
spond with  the  ideal ;  the  princes  continued  in  their  wills  to 
divide  their  soldiers  and  their  lands  among  their  children ;  but 
the  idea  did  not  perish,  and  if  it  was  never  realized  in  Kievan 
Russia,  it  found  a  more  propitious  soil  in  Muscovite  Russia. 
Legislation  likewise  felt  the  influence  of  Christianity.  Theft, 
murder,  and  assassination  were  not  looked  upon  by  the  Church 
as  private  offences,  for  which  the  aggrieved  persons  could  take 
reprisals  or  accept  money  in  commutation.  They  were  crimes 
to  be  punished  by  human  justice  in  the  name  of  God. 

For  private  revenge  Byzantine  influence  substituted  a  pub- 
lic penalty ;  for  the  fine  it  substituted  corporal  punishment, 
repugnant  to  the  free  barbarian,  and  to  the  instinctive  senti- 
ment of  human  dignity.  Imprisonment,  convict  labor,  flog- 
ging, torture,  mutilation,  death  itself,  inflicted  by  more  or  less 
cruel  means,  —  such  was  the  penal  code  of  the  Byzantines. 

The  Greek  bishops  of  the  time  of  Saint  Vladimir  wished 
that  brigands  should  be  put  to  death,  but  it  was  long  before 
popular  objection  to  such  punishment  was  overcome.  Vladi- 
mir, after  having  employed  this  supreme  means  of  repression, 
returned  to  the  system  of  fines,  which  besides  helped  to  fill 
the  treasury.  The  Byzantine  mode  of  procedure  likewise 
rejected  the  judicial  duel,  the  judgment  of  God,  and  the  Com- 
purgatores  long  upheld  by  custom.  But,  as  in  Gaul,  Roman 


972-1054.]  VLADIMIR  AND   IAROSLAF.  95 

law  existed  for  church  officers  and  part  of  the  natives  side  by 
side  with  the  Frank  or  Burgundian  law,  so  in  Russia  the 
Byzantine  codes  of  Justinian  and  Basil  the  Macedonian  were 
established  at  the  side  of  the  Scandinavian  code  of  laroslaf. 

During  many  centuries  the  two  systems  of  legislation  ex- 
isted together,  each  being  slightly  influenced  by  the  other, 
until  the  time  when  they  were  mingled  in  a  new  code,  the 
Ulojenie  of  Ivan  the  Great,  and  the  Sudebnik  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible. 

The  Byzantine  literature  which  found  its  way  into  Russia 
consisted  not  only  of  the  Sacred  Books,  but  also  of  the  Fathers 
of  the  Church,  among  whom  we  may  reckon  some  writers  of 
the  first  order,  like  Saint  Basil  and  Saint  John  Chrysostom ; 
lives  of  the  saints,  an  inexhaustible  source  of  new  poetry ; 
chronicles  destined  to  serve  as  models  to  the  Russian  annal- 
ists ;  philosophical  and  scientific  books ;  even  romances  such 
as  "  Barlaam  and  Josaphat,"  "  Salomon  and  Kitovras,"  and 
others.  Though  this  literature  was  partly  the  fruit  of  Byzan- 
tine decay,  we  may  perceive  how  it  implanted  fresh  ideas  in 
the  mind  of  a  young  nation,  and  would  largely  influence  the 
moral  life  of  the  individual,  and  public  and  family  life.  We 
shall  see  up  to  what  point  Russian  society  of  the  Middle 
Ages  was  modelled  on  the  examples  afforded  by  this  litera- 
ture. Finally,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  Christianity 
brought  music  in  its  train  to  a  people  whose  music  was  highly 
primitive,  and  architecture  to  a  people  who  had  absolutely 
none.  It  was  Christianity  which,  to  use  a  Western  expres- 
sion, illuminated  the  Russian  cities  with  magnificent  churches, 
and  caused  golden  cupolas  to  tower  above  the  ramparts  of 
mud  that  begirt  the  towns. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

RUSSIA  DIVIDED  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES.— 
SUPREMACY  AND   FALL,  OF  KIEF. 

1054-1169. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  RUSSIA  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES.  —  UNITY  IN  DIVISION.— 
THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  IAROSLAF  THE  GREAT. — WARS  ABOUT  THE  EIGHT 
OF  HEADSHIP  OF  THE  EOYAL  FAMILY,  AND  THE  THRONE  OF  KIEF.  — 
VLADIMIR  MONOMAKH. — WARS  BETWEEN  THE  HEIRS  OF  VLADIMIR 
MONOMAKH.  —  FALL  OF  KIEF. 


DISTRIBUTION  OF  RUSSIA  INTO    PRINCIPALITIES.  —  UNITY 

IN  DIVISION. 

THE  period  that  extends  from  ten  hundred  and  fifty-four, 
the  year  of  laroslafs  death,  to  twelve  hundred  and 
twenty-four,  the  year  of  the  first  appearance  of  the  Tatars,  or, 
to  take  the  French  chronology,  from  the  reign  of  Henry  the 
First  to  the  death  of  Philip  Augustus,  is  one  of  the  most  con- 
fused and  troubled  in  Russian  history.  As  the  barbarian 
custom  of  division  continued  to  prevail  over  the  Byzantine 
ideal  of  political  unity,  the  national  territory  was  ceaselessly 
partitioned. 

The  princely  anarchy  of  Eastern  Europe  has  its  parallel  in 
the  feudal  anarchy  of  the  West.  M.  Pogodin  reckons  during 
this  period  sixty-four  principalities  which  had  an  existence 
more  or  less  prolonged,  two  hundred  and  ninety-three  princes 
who  disputed  the  throne  of  Kief  and  other  domains,  and 
eighty-three  civil  wars,  in  some  of  which  the  whole  country 
was  engaged.  There  were,  besides,  foreign  wars  to  augment 
this  enormous  mass  of  historical  facts.  Against  the  Polovtsui 


1054-1169.]      DIVISION  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES.  97 

alone  the  chroniclers  mention  eighteen  campaigns,  while  these 
barbarians  made  no  less  than  forty-six  invasions  of  Russia. 
It  is  impossible  to  follow  the  national  chroniclers  in  the 
minute  details  of  their  annals  ;  we  will  only  treat  of  the  prin- 
cipalities which  lasted  some  time,  and  of  the  facts  which  were 
most  important. 

The  ancient  names  of  the  Slav  tribes  have  everywhere  dis- 
appeared, or  remain  only  in  the  names  of  some  of  the  towns, 
for  example  that  of  the  Polotchane  in  Polotsk,  and  that  of 
the  Severiane  in  Novgorod-Severski.  The  elements  of  which 
Russia  was  now  composed  were  no  longer  tribes,  but  princi- 
palities. We  hear  no  more  of  the  Krivitchi  or  the  Drevliane, 
but  of  the  principalities  of  Smolensk  and  Volhynia.  These 
little  states  were  perpetually  dismembered  at  each  new  parti- 
tion between  the  sons  of  a  prince,  and  then  were  reconstituted 
to  be  divided  anew  into  appanages. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  vicissitudes,  some  of  them  main- 
tained a  steady  existence,  corresponding  to  certain  topographi- 
cal or  ethnographical  conditions.  Without  speaking  of  the 
distant  principality  of  Tmutorakan,  situated  at  the  foot  of  the 
Caucasus  in  the  centre  of  Turkish  and  Circassian  tribes,  and 
reckoning  eight  successive  princes,  the  following  are  the  great 
divisions  of  Russia  from  the  eleventh  to  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury :  — 

The  principality  of  Smolensk  occupied  the  important  terri- 
tory which  is,  as  it  were,  the  central  point  in  the  mountain 
system  of  Russia.  It  comprehends  the  ancient  forest  of  Okof, 
where  three  of  the  largest  Russian  rivers,  the  Volga,  the 
Dnieper,  and  the  Dwina,  take  their  rise.  Hence  the  political 
importance  of  Smolensk,  attested  by  all  the  wars  to  gain  pos- 
session of  it ;  hence,  also,  its  commercial  prosperity.  It  is  no- 
ticeable that  all  its  towns  were  built  on  one  or  other  of  these 
three  great  rivers ;  therefore  the  entire  commerce  of  ancient 
Russia  passed  through  its  hands.  Besides  Smolensk  we  must 
mention  Mojaisk,  Viasma,  and  Toropets,  which  was  the  capi- 


98  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

tal  of  a  secondary  principality,  the  property  of  two  celebrated 
princes,  Mstislaf  the  Brave  and  Mstislaf  the  Bold. 

The  principality  of  Kief  was  Ens,  Russia  in  the  strict  sense 
of  the  word.  Its  situation  on  the  Dnieper,  the  neighborhood 
of  the  Greek  Empire,  the  fertility  of  the  Black  Land,  long 
secured  to  this  state  the  supremacy  over  the  other  Russian 
principalities.  On  the  south  it  bordered  directly  on  the  no- 
mads of  the  steppe,  against  whom  her  princes  were  forced  to 
raise  a  barrier  of  frontier  towns.  They  often  took  these  bar- 
barians into  their  pay,  granted  them  lands,  and  constituted 
them  into  military  colonies.  The  principality  of  Pereiaslavl 
was  a  dependence  of  Kief;  Vuishegorod,  Bielgorod,  Tripoli, 
Torshok,  were  at  times  erected  into  principalities  for  princes 
of  the  same  family. 

On  the  tributaries  of  the  right  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  nota- 
bly the  Soja,  the  Desna,  and  the  Se'im,  extended  the  two  prin- 
cipalities of  Tchernigof,  with  Starodub  and  Lubetch ;  and  of 
Novgorod-Severski,  with  Putivl,  Kursk,  and  Briansk.  The 
principality  of  Tchernigof,  which  reached  towards  the  Upper 
Oka,  had  therefore  one  foot  in  the  basin  of  the  Volga;  its 
princes,  the  Olgovitchi,  were  the  most  formidable  rivals  of 
Kief.  The  princes  of  Severski  were  always  engaged  in  war 
with  the  Polovtsui,  their  neighbors  on  the  south.  It  was  a 
prince  of  Severski  whose  exploits  against  these  barbarians 
formed  the  subject  of  a  sort  of  epic  poem,  called  the  Song  of 
Igor,  or  the  Account  of  Igor's  Expedition. 

Another  principality,  whose  very  existence  consisted  in  end- 
less war  against  the  nomads,  was  the  double  principality  of 
Riazan  and  Murom,  the  principal  towns  of  which  were  Ria- 
zan,  Murom,  Pereiaslavl-Riazanski,  situated  on  the  Oka,  Ko- 
lornna  at  the  junction  of  the  Moskova  with  the  Oka,  and 
Pronsk  on  the  Prona.  The  Upper  Don  formed  its  western 
boundary.  This  principality  was  placed  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  Muromians  and  Meshtcheraki,  Finnish  tribes.  The  repu- 
tation of  its  inhabitants,  who  were  reckoned  warlike  in  charac- 


1054-1169.]       DIVISION  INTO  PEINCIPALITIES.  99 

ter,  and  rough  and  brutal  in  manners,  was  no  doubt  partly 
the  result  of  the  mixture  of  the  Russian  race  with  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  and  of  their  perpetual  and  bloody 
struggle  with  the  nomad  tribes. 

The  double  principalities  of  Suzdal,  with  their  towns  of 
Suzdal,  Rostof,  lurief-Polski  on  the  Kolosha,  Vladimir  on  the 
Kliazma,  laroslavl,  and  Pereiaslavl-Zaliesld,  were  situated  on 
the  Volga  and  the  Oka  amongst  the  thickest  of  northern  for- 
ests, and  in  the  middle  of  the  Finnish  tribes  of  Murom ians, 
Meria,  Vesui,  and  Tcheremisa.  Although  placed  at  the 
farthest  extremity  of  the  Russian  world,  Suzdal  exercised  an 
important  influence  over  it.  We  shall  find  its  princes  now 
establishing  a  certain  political  authority  over  Novgorod  and 
the  Russia  of  the  Lakes,  the  result  of  a  double  economic 
dependence ;  now  intervening  victoriously  in  the  quarrels  of 
the  Russia  of  the  Dnieper.  The  Suzdalians  were  rough  and 
warlike,  like  the  Riazanese.  Already  we  can  distinguish 
among  these  two  peoples  the  characteristics  of  a  new  nation- 
ality. That  which  divides  them  from  the  Kievans  and  the 
men  of  Novgorod-Severski,  occupied  like  themselves  in  the 
great  war  with  the  barbarians,  is  the  fact  that  the  Russians  of 
the  Dnieper  sometimes  mingled  their  blood  with  that  of  their 
enemies,  and  became  fused  with  the  nomad,  essentially  mobile 
Turkish  races,  whilst  the  Russians  of  the  Oka  and  the  Volga 
united  with  the  Finnish  tribes,  who  were  agricultural  and 
essentially  sedentary.  This  distinction  between  the  two  for- 
eign elements  that  entered  the  Slav  blood  has  doubtless  con- 
tributed to  the  difference  in  the  characters  of  the  two  branches 
of  the  Russian  race.  From  the  eleventh  to  the  thirteenth 
century,  in  passing  from  the  basin  of  the  Dnieper  to  the  basin 
of  the  Volga,  we  can  already  watch  the  formation  of  Great 
and  Little  Russia. 

The  principalities  of  Kief,  Tchernigof,  Novgorod-Severski, 
Riazan,  Murom,  and  Suzdal,  situated  on  the  side  of  the 
steppe  with  its  devastating  hordes,  formed  the  frontier  states 


100  HISTOEY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

of  Russia.  The  same  part  to  play  on  the  northwest,  opposite 
the  Lithuanians,  Letts,  and  Tchudi,  fell  to  the  principality  of 
Polotsk,  which  occupied  the  basin  of  the  Dwina;  and  to  the 
republican  principalities  of  Novgorod  and  Pskof  on  the  lakes 
Ilmen  and  Peipus.  To  the  principality  of  Polotsk,  that  of 
Minsk  was  attached,  which  lay  in  the  basin  of  the  Dnieper. 
The  possession  of  Minsk,  thanks  to  its  situation,  was  often 
disputed  by  the  Grand  Princes  of  Kief.  To  Novgorod  be- 
longed the  towns  of  Torjok,  Volok-Lamski,  Izborsk,  and 
Veliki-Luki,  which  were  at  times  capitals  of  particular  states. 

Southeast  Russia  comprehended :  Volhynia,  in  the  fan-shaped 
distribution  of  rivers  formed  by  the  Pripet  and  its  tributaries, 
with  Vladimir-in-Volhynia,  Lutsk,  Turof,  Brest,  and  even  Lub- 
lin, which  is  certainly  Polish  ;  Gallicia  proper,  or  Red  Russia, 
in  the  basins  of  the  San,  the  Dniester,  and  the  Pripet,  whose 
ancient  inhabitants,  the  White  Kroats,  seem  to  have  sprung 
from  the  stock  of  the  Danubian  Slavs.  Her  chief  towns  were 
Galitch,  founded  by  Vladimirko  about  eleven  hundred  and 
forty-four,  Peremuisl,  Terebovl,  and  Zvenigorod.  The  neigh- 
borhood of  Hungary  and  Poland  gave  a  special  character  to 
these  principalities,  as  well  as  a  more  advanced  civilization. 
The  epic  songs  speak  of  Gallicia,  the  native  land  of  the  hero 
Diuk  Stepanovitch,  as  a  fabulously  rich  country.  The  Ac- 
count of  Igor's  Expedition  gives  us  a  high  idea  of  the  power 
of  these  princes.  "  laroslaf  Osmomuisl  of  Gallicia  ! "  cried 
the  poet  to  one  of  them,  "  thou  art  seated  very  high  on  thy 
throne  of  wrought  gold  ;  with  thy  regiments  of  iron  thou  sus- 
tainest  the  Carpathians ;  thou  closest  the  gates  of  the  Dan- 
ube ;  thou  barrest  the  way  to  the  king  of  Hungary ;  thou 
openest  at  thy  will  the  gates  of  Kief,  and  with  thine  arrows 
thou  strikest  from  afar ! " 

The  disposition  of  these  fifteen  or  sixteen  principalities  con- 
firms all  that  we  have  said  about  the  essential  unity  of  the 
configuration  of  the  Russian  soil.  Not  one  of  the  river-basins 
forms  an  isolated  and  closed  region.  There  is  no  line  of 


1054-1169.]       DIVISION   INTO   PRINCIPALITIES.  101 

heights  to  establish  barriers  between  them  or  political  fron- 
tiers. The  greater  number  of  the  Russian  principalities  belong 
to  the  basin  of  the  Dnieper,  but  extend  everywhere  beyond  its 
limits.  The  principality  of  Kief,  with  Pereiaslavl,  is  nearly 
the  only  one  completely  confined  within  it;  but  Volhynia 
puts  the  basin  of  the  Dnieper  in  communication  with  those  of 
the  Bug  and  the  Vistula,  Polotsk  with  the  basins  of  the  Dnie- 
per and  the  Dwina,  Novgorod-Severski  with  the  basin  of  the 
Don,  Tchernigof  and  Smolensk  with  the  basin  of  the  Volga. 
Watercourses  everywhere  established  communications  between 
the  principalities.  Already  Russia,  though  broken  up  into 
appanages,  had  the  germs  of  a  great  united  empire.  The 
slight  cohesion  of  nearly  all  the  states,  and  their  frequent 
dismemberments,  prevented  them  from  ever  becoming  the 
homes  of  real  nationalities.  The  principalities  of  Smolensk, 
Tchernigof,  and  Riazan  have  never  possessed  as  definite  an 
historic  existence  as  the  duchy  of  Bretagne  or  the  county  of 
Toulouse  in  France,  or  the  duchies  of  Saxony,  Suabia,  and 
Bavaria  in  Germany. 

The  interests  of  the  princes,  their  desire  to  create  appanages 
for  each  of  their  children,  caused  a  fresh  division  of  the  Rus- 
sian territory  at  the  death  of  every  sovereign.  There  was, 
however,  a  certain  cohesion  in  the  midst  of  all  these  vicissi- 
tudes. There  was  a  unity  of  race  and  language,  the  more 
sensible,  notwithstanding  all  dialectic  differences,  because  the 
Russian  people  was  surrounded  everywhere,  except  at  the 
southwest,  by  entirely  strange  races,  Lithuanians,  Tchudi, 
Finns,  Turks,  Magyars.  There  was  a  unity  of  religion ;  the 
Russians  differed  from  nearly  all  their  neighbors,  for  in  con- 
trast with  the  Western  Slavs,  Poles,  Tcheki,  and  Moravians, 
they  represented  a  particular  form  of  Christianity,  not  owning 
any  tie  to  Rome,  and  rejecting  Latin  as  the  language  of  the 
Church.  There  was  the  unity  of  historical  development,  as 
up  to  that  time  the  Russo-Slavs  had  all  followed  the  same 
road,  had  accepted  Greek  civilization,  submitted  to  the  Vari- 


102  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

agi,  pursued  certain  great  enterprises  in  common,  —  such  as 
the  expeditions  against  Byzantium  and  the  war  with  the 
nomads.  Finally,  there  was  political  unity,  since  after  all, 
in  Gallicia  as  in-  Novgorod,  on  the  Dnieper  as  in  the  for- 
ests of  Suzdal,  it  was  the  same  family  that  filled  all  the 
thrones.  All  these  princes  descended  from  Rurik,  Saint  Vla- 
dimir, and  laroslaf  the  Great.  The  fact  that  the  wars  that 
laid  waste  the  country  were  civil  wars,  was  a  new  proof  of 
this  unity.  The  different  parts  of  Russia  could  not  consider 
themselves  strangers  one  to  the  other,  when  they  saw  the 
princes  of  Tchernigof  and  Suzdal  taking  up  arms  to  prove 
which  of  them  was  the  eldest,  and  which  consequently  had 
most  right  to  the  title  of  Grand  Prince  and  the  throne  of  Kief. 
There  were  descendants  of  Rurik  who  governed,  successively, 
the  remotest  states  of  Russia,  and  who,  after  having  reigned 
at  Tmutorakan  on  the  Straits  of  lenikale,  at  Novgorod  the 
Great,  at  Toropets  in  the  country  of  Smolensk,  ended  by  es- 
tablishing their  right  to  reign  at  Kief.  In  spite  of  the  divis- 
ion into  appanages,  Kief  continued  to  be  the  centre  of  Russia, 
It  was  there  that  Oleg  and  Igor  had  reigned,  that  Vladimir 
had  baptized  his  people,  and  laroslaf  had  established  the 
metropolis  of  the  faith,  of  arts,  and  of  national  civilization. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  it  should  have  been  more  fiercely 
disputed  than  all  the  other  Russian  cities.  Russia  had  many 
princes  ;  but  she  had  only  one  Grand  Prince,  —  the  one  who 
reigned  at  Kief.  He  had  a  recognized  supremacy  over  the 
others  which  he  owed  not  only  to  the  importance  of  his  capital, 
but  to  his  position  as  eldest  of  the  royal  family.  Kief,  the 
mother  of  Russian  cities,  was  always  to  belong  to  the  eldest 
of  the  descendants  of  Rurik ;  this  was  the  consequence  of  the 
patriarchal  system  of  the  Slavs,  as  was  the  custom  of  division. 
When  the  Grand  Prince  of  Kief  died,  his  son  was  not  his 
rightful  heir ;  but  his  uncle  or  brother,  or  whichever  of  the 
princes  was  the  eldest.  Then  the  whole  of  Russia,  from 
the  Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea,  held  itself  in  readiness  to  support 


1054-1169.]       DIVISION  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES.  103 

the  claims  of  this  or  that  candidate.  It  was  the  same  with 
the  other  principalities,  where  the  possessors  of  different 
appanages  aspired  to  reign  in  the  metropolis  of  the  region. 
The  civil  wars,  then,  themselves  strengthened  the  sentiment 
of  Russian  unity.  What  were  they,  after  all,  but  family 
quarrels  ? 


THE  SUCCESSORS  OF  IAROSLAF  THE  GREAT.  —  WARS  FOR 
THE  RIGHTS  OF  ELDERSHIP  AND  THE  THRONE  OF  KIEF. 
—VLADIMIR  MONOMAKH. 

The  persistent  conflict  between  the  Byzantine  law,  by  which 
the  son  inherited  the  possessions  of  the  father,  and  the  old 
national  law  of  the  Slavs  which  caused  them  to  pass  to  the 
eldest  of  all  the  family,  was  an  inexhaustible  source  of  civil 
wars.  Even  had  the  law  been  perfectly  clear,  the  princes  were 
not  always  disposed  to  recognize  it.  Thus,  although  the  eldest 
of  laroslaf 's  sons  had  in  his  favor  the  formal  will  of  his  father, 
giving  him  the  throne  of  Kief,  and  though  laroslaf  on  his 
death-bed  had  desired  his  other  sons  to  respect  their  elder 
brother  as  they  had  done  their  parent,  and  look  on  him  as 
their  father,  Isiaslaf  at  once  found  his  brother  Sviatoslaf  ready 
to  take  up  arms  and  overturn  his  throne.  He  was  obliged  in 
ten  hundred  and  seventy-three  to  seek  refuge  at  the  Court  of 
Henry  the  Fourth  of  Germany,  who  sent  an  embassy  to  Kief, 
commanding  Sviatoslaf  to  restore  the  throne  of  Isiaslaf.  Svia- 
toslaf received  the  German  envoys  with  such  courtesy,  made 
them  such  a  display  of  his  treasures  and  riches,  that,  daz- 
zled by  the  gold,  they  adopted  a  pacific  policy.  Henry  the 
Fourth  himself,  disarmed  by  the  liberalities  of  the  Russian 
prince,  spoke  no  more  of  chastising  the  usurper.  Isiaslaf  did 
not  return  to  Kief  till  after  the  death  of  his  rival  in  ten  hun- 
dred and  seventy-six. 

When  his  own  death  took  place,  in  ten  hundred  and  seventy- 
eight,  his  son  Sviatopolk  did  not  succeed  him  immediately.  It 


104  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

was  necessary  that  all  the  heirs  of  laroslaf  should  be  exhausted. 
Vsevolod,  a  brother  of  Isiaslaf,  whose  daughter  married  the 
Emperor  Henry  the  Fourth  or  Henry  the  Fifth,  —  it  is  not 
quite  certain  which,  —  reigned  for  fifteen  years,  from  ten  hun- 
dred and  seventy-eight  until  ten  hundred  and  ninety-three. 
In  accordance  with  the  same  principle,  it  was  not  the  son  of 
Vsevolod,  Vladimir  Monomakh,  who  succeeded  his  father ; 
but  after  the  crown  had  been  worn  by  a  new  generation  of 
princes,  it  returned  to  the  blood  of  Isiaslaf.  Vladimir  Mono- 
makh made  no  opposition  to  the  claims  of  Sviatopolk  Isia- 
slavitch.  "  His  father  was  older  than  mine,"  he  said,  "  and 
reigned  first  in  Kief,"  so  he  quitted  the  principality  which  he 
had  governed  with  his  father,  and  valiantly  defended  against 
the  barbarians.  But  every  one  was  not  so  respectful  to  the 
national  law  as  Vladimir  Monomakh. 

Two  terrible  civil  wars  desolated  Russia  in  the  reign  of  the 
Grand  Prince  Sviatopolk,  between  ten  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  and  eleven  hundred  and  thirteen  :  one  about  the  princi- 
pality of  Tchernigof,  the  other  about  Volhynia  and  Red  Russia. 
Sviatoslaf  had  enjoyed  Tchernigof  as  his  share,  to  which 
Tmutorakan  in  the  Taurid,  Murom  and  Riazan  in  the  Finn 
country,  were  annexed.  Isiaslaf  and  Vsevolod,  Grand  Princes 
of  Kief,  had  despoiled  the  sons  of  Sviatoslaf,  their  brother, 
depriving  them  of  the  rich  territory  of  Tchernigof,  and  only 
leaving  them  Tmutorakan  and  the  Finnish  country.  Even 
Vladimir  Monomakh,  whom  we  have  seen  so  disinterested,  had 
accepted  a  share  of  the  spoil.  The  injured  princes  were  not 
people  to  bear  this  meekly,  especially  the  eldest,  Oleg  Svia- 
toslavitch,  one  of  the  most  energetic  men  of  the  eleventh 
century.  He  called  the  terrible  Polovtsui  to  his  aid,  and  sub- 
jected Russia  to  frightful  ravages.  Vladimir  Monomakh  was 
moved  by  these  misfortunes;  he  wrote  a  touching  letter  to 
Oleg,  expressing  his  sorrow  for  having  accepted  Tchernigof. 
At  his  instigation  a  Congress  of  Princes  met  at  Lubetch,  on 
the  Dnieper,  in  ten  hundred  and  ninety-seven.  Seated  on  the 


1054-1169.]      DIVISION   INTO   PRINCIPALITIES.  105 

same  carpet,  they  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  the  civil  wars  that 
handed  the  country  as  a  prey  to  the  barbarians.  Oleg  re- 
covered Tchernigof,  and  promised  to  unite  with  the  Grand 
Prince  of  Kief  and  Vladimir  Monomakh  against  the  Polovtsui. 
The  treaty  was  ratified  by  the  oath  of  each  prince,  who  kissed 
the  cross  and  swore,  "  that  henceforth  the  Russian  land  shall 
be  considered  as  the  country  of  us  all ;  and  whoso  shall  dare 
to  arm  himself  against  his  brother  becomes  our  common 
enemy." 

In  Volhynia  the  prince,  David,  was  at  war  with  his  nephews, 
Vasilko  and  Volodar.  The  Congress  of  Lubetch  had  divided 
the  disputed  territories  between  them,  but  scarcely  was  the 
treaty  ratified  when  David  went  to  the  Grand  Prince  Sviato- 
polk  and  persuaded  him  that  Vasilko  had  a  design  on  his  life. 
With  the  light  faith  habitual  to  the  men  of  that  date,  the 
Grand  Prince  joined  David  in  framing  a  plot  to  attract  Vasilko 
to  Kief  on  the  occasion  of  a  religious  festival.  When  he  arrived 
he  was  loaded  with  chains,  and  the  Grand  Prince  convoked 
the  boyars  and  citizens  of  Kief,  to  denounce  to  them  the  pre- 
tended projects  of  Vasilko.  "  Prince,"  replied  the  boyars,  much 
embarrassed,  "  thy  tranquillity  is  dear  to  us.  Vasilko  merits 
death,  if  it  is  true  that  he  is  thine  enemy  ;  but  if  he  is  calum- 
niated by  David,  God  will  avenge  on  David  the  blood  of  the 
innocent."  Thereon  the  Grand  Prince  delivered  Vasilko  to  his 
enemy  David,  who  put  out  his  eyes.  The  other  descendants 
of  laroslaf  the  First  were  indignant  at  this  crime.  Vladimir 
Monomakh  united  with  Oleg  of  Tchernigof,  his  ancient  enemy, 
and  marched  against  Sviatopolk.  The  people  and  clergy  of 
Kief  succeeded  in  preventing  a  civil  war  between  the  Grand 
Prince  and  the  confederates  of  Lnbetch.  Sviatopolk  was 
forced  to  disavow  David,  and  swear  to  join  the  avengers  of 
Vasilko.  David  defended  himself  with  vigor,  and  summoned 
to  his  help,  first  the  Poles,  and  then  the  Hungarians.  At  last 
a  new  congress  was  assembled  at  Vititchevo  in  the  year  eleven 
hundred,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  a  town  of  which  a 


106  HISTOKY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

deserted  ruin  is  all  that  now  remains.  As  a  punishment  for 
his  crime,  David  was  deprived  of  his  principality  of  Vladimir 
in  Volhynia,  and  had  to  content  himself  with  four  small  towns. 
After  the  new  settlement  of  this  affair,  Monomakh  led  the 
other  princes  against  the  Polovtsui,  and  inflicted  on  them  a 
bloody  defeat ;  seventeen  of  their  khans  remained  on  the  field 
of  battle.  One  khan  who  was  made  prisoner  offered  a  ransom 
to  Monomakh ;  but  the  prince  showed  how  deeply  he  felt  the 
injuries  of  the  Christians,  —  he  refused  the  gold,  and  cut  the 
brigand  chief  in  pieces. 

When  Sviatopolk  died,  the  Kievans  unanimously  declared 
they  would  have  no  Grand  Prince  but  Vladimir  Monomakh. 
Vladimir  declined  the  honor,  alleging  the  claims  of  Oleg  and 
his  brothers  to  the  throne  of  Kief.  During  these  negotiations 
a  sedition  broke  out  in  the  city,  and  the  Jews,  whom  Sviato- 
polk had  made  the  instruments  of  his  fiscal  exactions,  were 
pillaged.  Monomakh  was  forced  to  yield  to  the  prayers  of 
the  citizens.  During  his  reign,  from  eleven  hundred  and  thir- 
teen until  eleven  hundred  and  twenty -five,  he  obtained  great 
successes  against  the  Polovtsui,  the  Petchenegi,  the  Torki, 
the  Tcherkesui,  and  other  nomads.  He  gave  an  asylum 
to  the  remains  of  the  Khazarui,  who  built  on  the  Oster,  not 
far  from  Tchernigof,  the  town  of  Belovega.  The  ruins  of  this 
city  that  remain  to-day  prove  that  this  Finnish  people,  emi- 
nently capable  of  culture,  and  already  civilized  by  the  Greeks, 
were  further  advanced  in  the  arts  of  construction  and  fortifica- 
tion than  even  the  Russians  themselves.  According  to  one 
tradition,  Monomakh  also  made  war  on  the  Emperor  Alexis 
Comnenus,  a  Russian  army  invaded  Thrace,  and  the  Bishop 
of  Ephesus  is  said  to  have  brought  gifts  to  Kief,  among  others 
a  cup  of  carnelian  that  had  belonged  to  Augustus,  besides  a 
crown  and  a  throne,  still  preserved  in  the  Museum  at  Moscow, 
under  the  name  of  the  crown  and  throne  of  Monomakh.  It  is 
now  known  that  they  never  belonged  to  Vladimir,  but  it  was 
the  policy  of  his  descendants,  the  Tsars  of  Moscow,  to  propa- 


1054-1169.]       DIVISION   INTO   PRINCIPALITIES.  107 

gate  this  legend.  It  was  of  consequence  to  them  to  prove 
that  these  tokens  of  their  power  were  traceable  to  their 
Kievan  ancestor,  and  that  the  Russian  Monomakh,  grandson 
of  the  Greek  Monomachus,  had  been  solemnly  crowned  by  the 
Bishop  of  Ephesus  as  sovereign  of  Russia. 

The  Grand  Prince  made  his  authority  felt  in  other  parts 
of  Russia.  A  Prince  of  Minsk,  who  had  the  temerity  to 
kindle  a  civil  war,  was  promptly  dethroned,  and  died  in 
captivity  at  Kief.  The  Novgorodians  saw  many  of  their 
boyars  kept  as  hostages,  or  exiled.  The  Prince  of  Vladimir 
in  Volhynia  was  deposed,  and  his  states  given  to  a  son  of 
the  Grand  Prince. 

Monomakh  has  left  us  a  curious  paper  of  instructions  that 
he  compiled  for  his  sons,  and  in  which  he  gives  them  much 
good  advice,  enforced  by  examples  drawn  from  his  own  life. 
"  It  is  neither  fasting,  nor  solitude,  nor  the  monastic  life,  that 
will  procure  you  the  life  eternal,  —  it  is  well-doing.  Do  not 
forget  the  poor,  but  nourish  them.  Do  not  bury  your  riches 
in  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  for  that  is  contrary  to  the  precepts 
of  Christianity.*  Be  a  father  to  orphans,  judge  the  cause  of 
widows  yourself.  ....  Put  to  death  no  one,  be  he  innocent 
or  guilty,  for  nothing  is  more  sacred  than  the  soul  of  a 

Christian Love  your  wives,  but  beware  lest  they  get  the 

power  over  you.  When  you  have  learnt  anything  useful,  try 
to  preserve  it  in  your  memory,  and  strive  ceaselessly  to  get 
knowledge.  Without  ever  leaving  his  palace,  my  father  spoke 

five  languages,  a  thing  that  foreigners  admire  in  us I 

have  made  altogether  twenty-three  campaigns  without  count- 
ing those  of  minor  importance.  I  have  concluded  nineteen 
treaties  of  peace  with  the  Polovtsui,  taken  at  least  a  hun- 
dred of  their  princes  prisoners,  and  afterwards  restored  them 

*  To  bury  riches  in  the  earth  is  the  custom  with  which  the  Emperor  Maurice 
reproaches  the  Slavs  of  his  time,  and  which  is  to  this  day  characteristic  of  the 
Russian  peasants.  Often  the  head  of  the  family  dies  without  having  revealed  the 
hiding-place  to  his  children.  Treasure-trove  is  frequent  in  Russia. 


108  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

to  liberty ;  besides  more  than  two  hundred  whom  I  threw 
into  the  rivers.  No  one  has  travelled  more  rapidly  than  I. 
If  I  left  Tchernigof  very  early  in  the  morning,  I  arrived  at 
Kief  before  vespers.  Sometimes  in  the  middle  of  the  thickest 
forests  I  caught  wild  horses  myself,  and  bound  them  together 
with  my  own  hands.  How  many  times  I  have  been  thrown 
from  the  saddle  by  buffaloes,  struck  by  the  horns  of  the  deer, 
trampled  under  foot  by  the  elands  !  A  furious  boar  once 
tore  my  sword  from  my  belt ;  my  saddle  was  rent  by  a  bear, 
which  threw  my  horse  down  under  me !  How  many  falls 
I  had  from  my  horse  in  my  youth,  when,  heedless  of  danger,  I 
broke  my  head,  I  wounded  my  arms  and  legs  !  But  the  Lord 
watched  over  me  !  " 

Vladimir  completed  the  establishment  of  the  Slav  -race  in 
Suzdal,  and  founded  a  city  on  the  Kliazma  that  bore  his  name, 
and  that  was  destined  to  play  a  great  part.  Such,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  when  Louis  the  Sixth  was 
fighting  with  his  barons  of  the  Isle  de  France,  was  the  ideal 
of  a  Grand  Prince  of  Russia. 


WARS  BETWEEN  THE  HEIRS  OF  VLADIMIR  MONOMAKH.— 
FALL  OF  KIEF. 

Of  the  sons  of  Vladimir  Monomakh,  luri  Dolgoruki  became 
the  father  of  the  princes  of  Suzdal  and  Moscow,  and  Mstis- 
laf  the  father  of  the  princes  of  Galitch  and  Kief.  These  two 
branches  were  often  at  enmity,  and  it  was  their  rivalry  that 
struck  the  final  blow  at  the  prosperity  of  Kief.  When  Isiaslaf, 
son  of  Mstislaf,  was  called  to  the  throne  in  eleven  hundred 
and  forty-six  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  capital,  his  uncle,  luri 
Dolgoruki,  put  forward  his  rights  as  the  eldest  of  the  family. 
Kief,  which  had  been  already  many  times  taken  and  retaken 
in  the  strife  between  the  descendants  of  Oleg  of  Tchernigof 
and  the  descendants  of  Vladimir  Monomakh,  was  fated  to  be 
disputed  anew  between  the  uncle  and  the  nephew.  It  was 


1054-1169.]        DIVISION  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES.  109 

almost  a  war  between  the  Old  and  New  Russia,  the  Russia  of 
the  Dnieper  and  that  of  the  Volga.  The  princes  of  Suzdal, 
who  dwelt  afar  in  the  forests  in  the  northwest,  establishing 
their  rule  over  the  remnants  of  the  Finnish  races,  were  to  be- 
come greater  and  greater  strangers  to  Kievan  Russia.  If  they 
still  coveted  the  "  mother  of  Russian  cities,"  because  the  title 
of  Grand  Prince  was  attached  to  it,  they  at  least  began  to 
obey  and  to  venerate  it  less  than  the  other  princes. 

luri  Dolgoruki  found  an  ally  against  Isiaslaf  in  one  of  the 
Olgovitchi,  Sviatoslaf,  who  thirsted  to  avenge  his  brother  Igor, 
dethroned  and  kept  prisoner  in  Kief  by  the  Grand  Prince. 
The  Kievans  hesitated  to  support  the  sovereign  they  had 
chosen ;  they  hated  the  Olgovitchi,  but  in  their  attachment  to 
the  blood  of  Monomakh  they  respected  his  son  and  his  grand- 
son equally.  "  We  are  ready,"  they  said  to  Isiaslaf,  "  we  and 
our  children,  to  make  war  on  the  sons  of  Oleg.  But  luri  is 
your  uncle,  and  can  we  dare  to  raise  our  hands  against  the  son 
of  Monomakh  ?  "  After  the  war  had  lasted  some  time,  a  deci- 
sive battle  was  fought.  At  the  battle  of  Pereiaslavl  Isiaslaf 
was  completely  defeated,  and  took  refuge,  with  two  attendants, 
in  Kief.  The  inhabitants,  who  had  lost  many  citizens  in  this 
war,  declared  they  were  unable  to  stand  a  siege.  The  Grand 
Prince  then  abandoned  his  capital  to  luri  Dolgoruki,  and 
retired  to  Vladimir  in  Volhynia,  whence  he  demanded  help 
from  his  brother-in-law,  the  King  of  Hungary,  and  the  kings 
of  Poland  and  Bohemia.  With  these  reinforcements  he  sur- 
prised Kief,  and  nearly  made  his  uncle  prisoner.  Under- 
standing that  the  national  law  was  against  him,  he  opposed 
eldest  with  eldest,  and  declared  himself  the  partisan  of  another 
son  of  Monomakh,  the  old  Viatcheslaf,  Prince  of  Turof.  He 
was  proclaimed  Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  adopted  his  nephew 
Isiaslaf  as  his  heir,  and  during  his  reign,  from  eleven  hundred 
and  fifty  to  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-four,  gave  splendid  fetes 
to  the  Russians  and  Hungarians.  luri  returned  to  the  charge, 
and  was  beaten  under  the  walls  of  Kief.  Each  of  these  princes 


110  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

had  taken  barbarians  into  his  pay  :  luri,  the  Polovtsui ;  Isia- 
slaf,  the  Black  Caps,  that  is,  the  Torki,  the  Petchenegi,  and 
the  Berendians. 

The  obstinate  Prince  of  Suzdal  did  not  allow  himself  to  be 
discouraged  by  this  check.  The  old  Viatcheslaf,  who  only 
desired  peace  and  quiet,  in  vain  addressed  him  letters,  setting 
forth  his  rights  as  the  eldest.  "  I  had  already  a  beard  when 
you  entered  the  world,"  he  said.  luri  proved  himself  in- 
tractable, and  went  into  Gallicia  to  effect  a  junction  with  his 
ally,  Vladimirko,  Prince  of  Galitch.  This  Vladimirko  had 
violated  the  oath  he  had  taken  and  confirmed  by  kissing  the 
cross.  When  they  reproached  him,  he  said,  with  a  sneer, 
"  It  was  such  a  little  cross  ! "  To  prevent  this  dangerous  co- 
operation, Isiaslaf,  without  waiting  the  expected  arrival  of  the 
Hungarians,  began  the  pursuit  of  luri,  and  came  up  with  him 
on  the  borders  of  the  Rut,  a  small  tributary  of  the  Dnieper. 
A  bloody  battle  was  fought,  where  he  himself  was  wounded 
and  thrown  from  his  horse,  but  the  Suzdalians  arid  their  allies 
the  Polovtsui  were  completely  defeated  in  eleven  hundred  and 
fifty-one.  Isiaslaf  survived  this  victory  only  three  years.  After 
his  death  and  that  of  Viatcheslaf,  Kief  passed  from  hand  to 
hand.  luri  finally  reached  the  supreme  object  of  his  desires. 
He  made  his  entry  into  the  capital  in  eleven  hundred  and 
fifty-five,  and  had  the  consolation  of  dying  Grand  Prince  of 
Kief,  at  the  moment  that  a  league  was  being  formed  for  his 
expulsion,  in  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-seven.  "  I  thank  thee, 
great  God,"  cried  one  of  the  confederates  on  learning  the 
news,  "  for  having  spared  us,  by  the  sudden  death  of  our 
enemy,  the  obligation  of  shedding  his  blood  ! " 

The  confederates  entered  the  town  ;  one  of  them  assumed 
the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  the  others  divided  his  territories. 
Henceforth  there  existed  no  grand  principality,  properly  speak- 
ing, and  with  the  growing  power  of  Suzdal,  Kief  ceased  to 
be  the  capital  of  Russia.  A  final  disaster  was  still  reserved 
for  it. 


1054-1169.]      DIVISION  INTO  PRINCIPALITIES.  Ill 

In  eleven  hundred  and  sixty-nine  Andrei  Bogoliubski,  son 
of  luri  Dolgoruki,  and  Prince  of  Suzdal,  being  disaffected  to 
Mstislaf,  Prince  of  Kief,  formed  against  him  a  coalition  of 
eleven  princes.  He  confided  to  his  son  Mstislaf  and  his  vo'ie- 
vod  Boris  an  immense  army  of  Rostovians,  Vladimirians,  and 
Suzdalians  to  march  against  Kief.  This  time  the  Russia  of 
the  forests  triumphed  over  the  Russia  of  the  steppes,  and  after 
a  three  days'  siege  Kief  was  taken  by  assault.  "  This  mother 
of  Russian  cities,"  says  Karamsin,  "  had  been  many  times 
besieged  and  oppressed.  She  had  often  opened  her  Golden 
Gate  to  her  enemies,  but  none  had  ever  yet  entered  by  force. 
To  their  eternal  shame,  the  victors  forgot  that  they  too  were 
Russians !  During  three  days  not  only  the  houses,  but  the 
monasteries,  churches,  and  even  the  temples  of  Saint  Sophia 
and  the  Tithe,  were  given  over  to  pillage.  The  precious 
images,  the  priestly  ornaments,  the  books,  and  the  bells,  all 
were  taken  away." 

From  this  time  the  lot  of  the  capital  of  Saint  Vladimir, 
pillaged  and  dishonored  by  his  descendants,  ceases  to  have  a 
general  interest  for  Russia.  Like  other  parts  of  Slavonia,  it 
has  its  princes,  but  the  heads  of  the  reigning  families  of  Smo- 
lensk, Tchernigof,  and  Galitch  assume  the  once  unique  title 
of  Grand  Prince.  The  centre  of  Russia  is  changed.  It  is 
now  in  the  basin  of  the  Volga,  at  Suzdal.  Many  causes  con- 
spired to  render  the  disaster  of  eleven  hundred  and  sixty-nine 
irremediable.  The  chronic  civil  wars  of  this  part  of  Russia, 
and  the  multitudes  and  growing  power  of  the  nomad  hordes, 
rendered  the  banks  of  the  Dnieper  uninhabitable.  In  twelve 
hundred  and  three  Kief  was  again  sacked  by  the  Polovtsui, 
whom  the  Olgovitchi  of  Tchernigof  had  taken  into  their  pay. 
On  this  soil,  incessantly  the  prey  of  war  and  invasion,  it  was 
impossible  to  found  a  lasting  order  of  things  ;  it  was  impos- 
sible that  a  regular  system  of  government  should  be  estab- 

•/ 

lished,  —  that  civilization  should  develop  and  maintain  itself. 
Less  richly  endowed  by  nature,  and  less  civilized,  the  Russia 


112  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VI. 

of  the  forests  was  at  least  more  tranquil.  It  was  there  that  a 
grand  principality  was  formed,  called  to  fulfil  high  destinies, 
but  which,  unhappily,  was  to  be  separated  for  three  hundred 
years,  by  the  southern  steppes  and  the  nomads  who  dwelt 
there,  from  the  Black  Sea ;  that  is,  from  Byzantine  and  West- 
ern civilization. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

RUSSIA  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  KIEF.  —  POWER 
OF  SUZDAL  AND  GALLICIA. 

1169-1264. 

ANDREI  BOGOLIUBSKI  OF  SUZDAL  (1157-1174)  AND  THE  FIRST  ATTEMPT 
AT  AUTOCRACY.  —  IURI  THE  SECOND  (1212-1238).  —  WARS  WITH 
NOVGOROD. — BATTLE  OP  LIPETSK  (1216).  —  FOUNDATION  OP  NIJNI- 
NOVGOROD  (1220).  —  ROMAN  (1188-1205)  AND  HIS  SON  DANIEL 
(1205-1264)  IN  GALLICIA. 


ANDREI  BOGOLIUBSKI  OF  SUZDAL  AND  THE  FIRST 
ATTEMPT  AT  AUTOCRACY. 

AFTER  the  fall  of  the  grand  principality  of  Kief  Russia 
ceased  to  have  a  centre  round  which  its  whole  mass 
could  gravitate.  Its  life  seemed  to  be  withdrawn  to  the 
extremities  ;  and,  during  the  fifty-four  years  which  preceded 
the  arrival  of  the  Mongols,  all  the  interest  of  Russian  his- 
tory is  concentrated  on  the  principality  of  Suzdal,  on  that  of 
Galitch,  and  on  the  two  republics  of  Novgorod  and  Pskof. 

luri  Dolgoruki  was  the  founder  of  Suzdal,  but  we  have 
seen  him  expend  all  his  energy  in  securing  possession  of 
the  throne  of  Kief.  His  son  Andrei  Bogoliubski  was,  on  the 
contrary,  a  true  prince  of  Suzdal.  From  him  are  descended 
the  Tsars  of  Moscow  ;  with  him  there  appears  in  Russian  his- 
tory quite  a  new  type  of  prince.  It  is  no  longer  the  chival- 
rous, light-hearted,  careless  prince,  in  turn  a  prey  to  all  kinds 
of  opposing  passions,  the  joyous  prince  of  the  happy  land  of 
Kief,  —  but  an  ambitious,  restless,  politic,  and  imperious  sov- 
ereign, going  straight  to  his  goal  without  scruple  and  without 

VOL.  I.  8 


114  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

pity.  Andrei  had  taken  an  aversion  to  the  turbulent  cities  of 
the  Dnieper,  where  the  assemblies  of  citizens  sometimes  held 
the  power  of  the  prince  in  check.  In  Suzdal,  at  least,  he 
found  himself  in  the  centre  of  colonists  planted  by  the  prince, 
who  never  dreamed  of  contesting  his  authority;  he  reigned 
over  towns  which,  for  the  most  part,  owed  their  existence  to 
his  ancestors  or  himself.  During  the  lifetime  of  his  father 
luri  he  had  quitted  the  Dnieper  and  his  palace  at  Vuishe- 
gorod,  had  established  himself  on  the  Kliazma,  bringing  with 
him  a  Greek  image  of  the  Mother  of  God,  had  enlarged  and 
fortified  Vladimir,  and  founded  a  quarter  that  he  called  Bogo- 
liubovo. 

When  after  the  death  of  luri  the  grand  principality  be- 
came vacant,  he  allowed  the  princes  of  the  south  to  dispute  it 
among  themselves.  He  wished  to  mix  with  their  quarrels 
only  so  far  as  would  suffice  for  the  recognition  of  his  authority, 
not  at  Kief,  but  at  Novgorod  the  Great,  then  bound  by  the 
closest  ties  to  Suzdal.  He  established  one  of  his  nephews  as 
his  lieutenant  at  Novgorod.  A  glorious  campaign  against  the 
Bulgarians  increased  his  reputation  in  Russia.  He  deserved 
more  than  any  one  to  be  Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  but  we  have 
seen  that  he  preferred  to  pillage  it,  —  that  he  preferred  a  sacri- 
legious spoil  to  the  throne  of  Monomakh. 

After  having  destroyed  the  splendor  and  power  of  Kief,  and 
guided  by  the  sure  instinct  that  afterwards  led  Ivan  the  Great 
and  Ivan  the  Terrible  against  Novgorod,  he  longed  to  subdue 
the  great  republic  to  a  narrower  dependence.  "  The  fall  of 
Kief,"  says  Karamsin,  "seemed  to  presage  the  loss  of  Nov- 
gorod liberty ;  it  was  the  same  army,  and  it  was  the  same 
prince,  Mstislaf  Andreievitch,  who  commanded  it.  But  the 
Kievans,  accustomed  to  change  their  masters,  —  to  sacrifice  the 
vanquished  to  the  victors,  —  fought  only  for  the  honor  of  their 
princes,  while  the  Novgorodians  were  to  shed  their  blood  for 
the  defence  of  the  laws  and  institutions  established  by  their 
ancestors."  Mstislaf,  who  had  forced  the  princes  of  Smolensk, 


1169-1264.]  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  KIEF.  115 

Riazan,  Murom,  and  Polotsk,  to  join  him,  laid  waste  the  terri- 
tories of  the  republic  with  fire  and  sword,  but  succeeded  only 
in  exasperating  the  courageous  citizens.  When  fighting  began 
under  the  walls  of  the  town,  the  Novgorodians,  to  inflame  them- 
selves for  the  combat,  reminded  each  other  of  the  pillage  and 
the  sacrilege  with  which  their  adversaries  had  polluted  the 
holy  city  of  Kief.  All  swore  to  die  for  Saint  Sophia  of  Nov- 
gorod ;  their  archbishop,  Ivan,  took  the  image  of  the  Mother 
of  God  and  paraded  it  with  great  pomp  round  the  walls.  It 
is  said  that  an  arrow  shot  by  a  Suzdalian  soldier  having  struck 
the  image  of  the  Virgin,  her  face  turned  towards  the  city,  and 
inundated  the  vestments  of  the  archbishop  with  miraculous 
tears.  Instantly  a  panic  seized  the  besiegers.  The  victory 
of  the  Novgorodians  was  complete ;  they  slew  a  multitude  of 
their  enemies,  and  made  so  many  prisoners  that  Suzdalian 
slaves  became  a  drug  upon  the  market."  Their  dependence 
on  Suzdal  for  corn  forced  them  to  make  peace  in  eleven  hun- 
dred and  seventy.  They  abandoned  none  of  the  ancient 
rights  of  the  republic,  but  of  "  their  own  free  will,"  according 
to  the  consecrated  expression,  they  accepted  as  sovereign  the 
prince  nominated  for  them  by  Andrei  of  Suzdal. 

Andrei  about  this  time  lost  his  only  son,  his  heir,  Mstislaf. 
The  knowledge  that  in  future  he  would  be  working  for  his 
collateral  relatives  no  whit  diminished  his  ambition  or  his  ar- 
rogance. The  princes  of  Smolensk,  David,  Rurik,  and  Mstis- 
laf the  Brave,  could  not  endure  his  despotic  ways,  and,  in 
spite  of  his  threats,  took  Kief.  The  Olgovitchi  of  Tchernigof, 
delighted  to  see  discord  kindled  between  the  descendants  of 
Monomakh,  incited  Andrei  to  revenge  this  injury.  So  he  sent 
a  herald  to  the  princes  of  Smolensk,  to  say  to  them :  "  You 
are  rebels ;  the  principality  of  Kief  is  mine.  I  order  Rurik 
to  return  to  his  patrimony  of  Smolensk,  and  David  to  retire  to 
Berlad ;  I  can  no  longer  bear  his  presence  in  Russia,  nor  the 
presence  of  Mstislaf,  the  guiltiest  of  you  all." 

Mstislaf  the  Brave,  say  the  chroniclers,  "  feared  none  but 


116  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

God."  When  he  received  Andrei's  message,  he  shaved  the 
beard  and  hair  of  the  messenger,  and  answered  him :  "  Go, 
and  repeat  these  words  unto  your  prince  :  '  Up  to  this  time 
we  have  respected  you  like  a  father,  but  since  you  do  not 
blush  to  treat  us  as  your  vassals  and  common  people,  since 
you  have  forgotten  that  you  speak  to  princes,  we  mock  at  your 
menaces.  Execute  them, — we  appeal  to  the  judgment  of 
God.' '  The  judgment  of  God  was  an  encounter  under  the 
walls  of  Vuishegorod,  besieged  by  more  than  twenty  princes, 
allies  or  vassals  of  Andrei  of  Suzdal.  Mstislaf  succeeded  in 
dividing  the  assailants,  and  completed  their  defeat  by  a  victo- 
rious sortie  in  eleven  hundred  and  seventy -three. 

When  Andrei  came  to  establish  himself  in  the  land  of  Suz- 
dal, the  inhabitants  themselves  elected  him  their  prince,  to  the 
exclusion  of  other  members  of  the  family.  But  this  enemy  of 
municipal  liberty  had  no  intention  of  fixing  his  residence  either 
at  Rostof  or  Suzdal,  the  two  most  ancient  cities  of  the  prin- 
cipality, which  had  their  assembly  of  citizens,  their  vetche. 
From  the  beginning  he  had  conceived  the  project  of  raising 
above  them  a  new  town,  Vladimir  on  the  Kliazma,  consid- 
ered by  Rostof  and  Suzdal  merely  a  subject  borough.  To 
give  a  plausible  pretext  to  this  resolution  he  had  his  tent 
pitched  on  the  road  to  Suzdal  ten  versts  from  Vladimir,  and 
installed  himself  there  with  his  miraculous  image  of  the  Virgin 
which  came  from  Constantinople,  and  was,  we  are  assured,  the 
work  of  Saint  Luke.  The  next  day  he  announced  that  the 
Mother  of  God  had  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream,  and  had 
commanded  him  to  place  her  image,  not  at  Rostof,  but  at 
Vladimir.  He  was  likewise  to  build  a  church  and  a  monas- 
tery to  the  Virgin  on  the  spot  where  she  made  herself  manifest ; 
this  was  the  origin  of  the  village  of  Bogoliubovo.  Andrei  pre- 
ferred Vladimir  to  the  old  cities,  but  it  was  in  his  house  at 
Bogoliubovo  that  he  best  liked  to  live.  He  tried  to  make  of 
Vladimir  a  new  Kief,  as  Kief  herself  was  a  new  Byzantium. 
There  were  at  Vladimir  a  Golden  Gate,  a  Church  of  the  Tithe 


1169-1264.]  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  KIEF.  117 

consecrated  to  the  Virgin,  and  numerous  monasteries  built  by 
the  artists  summoned  by  Andrei  from  the  West. 

Andrei  sought  the  friendship  of  the  priests,  whom  he  felt  to 
be  one  of  the  great  forces  of  the  future.  He  posed  as  a  pious 
prince,  rose  often  by  night  to  burn  tapers  in  the  churches, 
and  publicly  distributed  alms  in  abundance.  After  a  victory 
over  the  Bulgarians  of  the  Volga,  he  obtained  leave  from  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  establish  a  commemorative  feast. 
It  happened  that  on  the  same  day  that  Andrei  triumphed  over 
the  Bulgarians,  thanks  to  the  image  of  the  Virgin,  the  Em- 
peror Manuel  had  won  a  victory  over  the  Saracens  by  means 
of  the  true  cross  and  the  image  of  Christ  represented  on  his 
standard.  One  anniversary  served  for  both  victories  of  ortho- 
doxy, and  Vladimir  was  in  harmony  with  Byzantium.  Andrei 
was  anxious  to  make  Vladimir  a  metropolitan  city.  At  the 
same  time  that  he  robbed  Kief  of  the  grand  principality,  he 
would  have  deprived  it  of  the  religious  supremacy  of  Russia, 
and  given  his  new  city  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the  temporal 
power.  This  time  the  patriarch  refused,  but  the  attempt  was 
one  day  to  be  renewed  by  the  princes  of  Moscow. 

What  more  particularly  proves  this  prince  —  who  had  risen 
from  the  conception  of  appanages  to  that  of  the  indivisible 
modern  state  —  to  have  been  superior  to  his  century,  to  have 
had  sure  instincts  as  to  the  future,  is  that  he  declined  to  share 
his  dominions  with  his  brothers  and  nephews.  In  spite  of 
luri's  testamentary  directions,  he  expelled  his  three  brothers 
from  Suzdal,  and  they  retired  with  their  mother,  a  Greek 
princess,  to  the  court  of  the  Emperor  Manuel.  It  appears 
that  this  measure  was  advised  by  the  men  of  Suzdal.  The 
subjects  then  had  the  same  instinct  of  unity  as  the  prince.  If 
he  broke  with  the  patriarchal  custom  of  appanages,  and  wished 
to  reign  alone  in  Vladimir,  he  broke  equally  with  the  Variag 
tradition  of  the  drujina;  he  treated  his  men,  his  boyars,  not 
as  companions,  but  as  subjects.  Those  who  refused  to  bow 
to  his  will  had  to  leave  the  country.  We  may  say  that  Andrei 


118  HISTOKY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Bogoliubski  created  autocracy  three  hundred  years  before  its 
time.  He  indicated  in  the  twelfth  century  all  that  the  Grand 
Princes  of  Moscow  had  to  do  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries,  to  attain  absolute  power.  His  mistrust  of  munici- 
pal liberty,  his  despotic  treatment  of  the  boyars,  his  efforts  to 
suppress  the  appanages,  his  proud  attitude  towards  the  other 
Russian  princes,  his  alliance  with  the  clergy,  and  his  project 
of  transporting  to  the  basin  of  the  Oka  the  religious  metrop- 
olis of  all  the  Russias,  are  the  indications  of  a  political  pro- 
gramme that  ten  generations  of  princes  did  not  suffice  to  carry 
out.  The  moment  was  not  yet  come ;  Andrei  had  not  enough 
power,  nor  Suzdal  resources  sufficient  to  subjugate  the  rest  of 
Russia.  Andrei  succeeded  against  Kief,  but  he  endured  a 
double  check  from  Novgorod  the  Great,  and  from  Mstislaf 
the  Brave,  and  the  princes  of  the  south.  His  despotism  made 
him  terrible  enemies.  His  boyars,  whom  he  tried  to  reduce 
to  obedience,  assassinated  him  in  his  favorite  residence  of 
Bogoliubovo  in  eleven  hundred  and  seventy-four. 


IURI  THE  SECOND.  — WARS  WITH  NOVGOROD.  —  BATTLE  OF 
LIPETSK.  —  NIJNI-NOVGOROD  FOUNDED. 

The  death  of  this  remarkable  man  was  followed  by  great 
troubles.  The  common  people  attacked  the  houses  of  rich 
men  and  magistrates,  gave  them  up  to  pillage,  and  committed 
so  many  murders  that  to  establish  quiet  the  clergy  were  forced 
to  have  a  procession  of  images.  The  unpunished  murders 
show  how  premature  was  the  autocratic  attempt  of  Andrei. 
His  succession  was  disputed  between  his  nephews  and  his 
two  brothers,  Mikhail  and  Vsevolod,  who  had  returned  from 
Greece.  The  nephews  were  supported  by  the  old  cities  of 
Rostof  and  Suzdal,  which  were  animated  by  a  violent  hatred 
of  the  upstart  city  of  Vladimir,  that  had  torn  from  them  the 
title  of  capital,  and  had  taken  up  the  cause  of  Mikhail  and 
Vsevolod.  "The  Vladimirians,"  said  the  Rostovians,  "are 


1169-1264.]  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  KIEF.  119 

our  slaves,  our  masons ;  let  us  burn  their  town,  and  set  up 
there  a  governor  of  our  own."  The  Vladimirians  had  the 
advantage  in  the  first  war,  and  caused  Mikhail,  the  elder  of 
Andrei's  brothers,  to  be  recognized  Grand  Prince  of  Suzdal. 
At  his  death  the  Rostovians  refused  to  recognize  the  other 
brother,  Vsevolod,  surnamed  the  Big-Nest  on  account  of  his 
numerous  posterity.  They  resisted  all  proposals  of  compro- 
mise, declaring  that  "  their  arms  alone  should  do  them  right 
on  the  vile  populace  of  Vladimir."  It  was,  on  the  contrary, 
the  vile  populace  of  Vladimir  who  put  the  boyars  of  Rostof 
in  chains.  The  two  ancient  cities  were  forced  to  submit; 
Vladimir  remained  the  capital  of  Suzdal.  Vsevolod,  in  his 
reign  from  eleven  hundred  and  seventy-six  to  twelve  hundred 
and  twelve,  managed  to  secure  himself  on  the  throne  by  de- 
feating the  princes  of  Riazan  and  Tchernigof.  He  extended 
his  influence  to  the  distant  Galitch,  and  contracted  matrimo- 
nial alliances  with  the  princes  of  Kief  and  Smolensk.  He 
reduced  the  Novgorodians  to  beg  for  one  of  his  sons  as  their 
prince.  "Lord  and  Grand  Prince,"  said  the  envoys  of  the 
republic  to  him,  "  our  country  is  your  patrimony ;  we  entreat 
you  to  send  us  the  grandson  of  luri  Dolgoruki,  the  great- 
grandson  of  Monomakh,  to  govern  us."  The  princes  of  Ria- 
zan having  incurred  his  displeasure,  he  united  their  states  to 
his  principality.  Riazan  rebelled,  and  was  reduced  to  ashes, 
and  the  inhabitants  transported  to  the  solitudes  of  Suzdal. 
This  prince,  who  has  likewise  been  called  "  the  Great,"  exhib- 
ited in  his  designs  the  prudence,  the  spirit  of  intrigue,  con- 
stancy, and  firmness  which  characterized  the  princes  of  the 
Russia  of  the  forests.  At  his  death,  in  twelve  hundred  and 
twelve,  the  troubles  began  again.  Dissatisfied  with  his  eldest 
son,  Konstantin,  Prince  of  Novgorod,  Vsevolod  had  given  the 
grand  principality  of  Novgorod  to  his  second  son,  luri  the 
Second.  Konstantin  had  to  content  himself  with  Rostof;  a 
third  brother,  laroslaf,  Prince  of  Pereiaslavl-Zalieski,  had  been 
sent  to  Novgorod. 


120  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

laroslaf  quarrelled  with  his  turbulent  subjects,  left  their 
town,  and  installed  himself  at  Torjok,  a  city  in  the  territory 
of  Novgorod,  where  he  betook  himself  to  hindering  the  pas- 
sage of  the  merchants  and  boyars.  Their  communications 
with  the  Volga  were  intercepted  ;  he  prevented  the  arrival  of 
corn,  and  reduced  the  town  to  starvation.  The  Novgorodians 
were  obliged  to  eat  the  bark  of  pines,  moss,  and  lime-leaves. 
The  streets  were  filled  with  the  bodies  of  the  wretched  inhab- 
itants, which  the  dogs  devoured.  laroslaf  was  implacable. 
He  persisted  in  remaining  at  Torjok,  refused  to  return  to 
Novgorod,  and  arrested  all  envoys  sent  to  him.  He  treated 
Novgorod  as  his  father  had  treated  Rostof  and  Suzdal.  But 
help  arrived  to  the  despairing  citizens  in  the  person  of  a 
Prince  of  Smolensk,  Mstislaf  the  Bold,  son  of  Mstislaf  the 
Brave.  "  Torjok  shall  not  hold  herself  higher  than  Novgo- 
rod," he  cried  ;  "  I  will  deliver  your  lands  and  your  citizens, 
or  leave  my  bones  among  you."  Thus  Mstislaf  became  Prince 
of  Novgorod ;  and  as  he  saw  that  the  Grand  Prince  of  Vladi- 
mir supported  his  brothers,  he  sought  an  ally  in  Konstantin 
of  Rostof,  who  was  discontented  with  his  inheritance.  The 
Novgorodian  quarrel  speedily  expanded  into  a  general  war, 
and  Mstislaf  contrived  to  make  Suzdal  the  scene  of  strife. 
Before  a  battle  he  tried  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  the 
two  princes  of  Vladimir  and  Rostof.  But  luri  answered,  "If 
my  father  was  not  able  to  reconcile  me  with  Konstantin,  has 
Mstislaf  the  right  to  judge  between  us  ?  Let  Konstantin  be 
victorious,  and  all  will  be  his."  This  strife  between  the  three 
sons  of  Big-Nest  had  all  the  usual  fierceness  of  fraternal  war- 
fare. Before  the  battle  luri  and  laroslaf  issued  orders  that 
quarter  was  to  be  given  to  no  one,  to  kill  even  those  who  had 
"  embroideries  of  gold  on  their  shoulders,"  that  is,  the  princes 
of  the  blood.  Already  they  had  decided  on  the  partition  of 
Russia.  But  the  troops  of  Novgorod,  Pskof,  and  Smolensk 
attacked  them  with  such  fury  that  those  of  Suzdal  and  Murom 
gave  way,  and  it  was  the  soldiers  of  Mstislaf  who  in  their 


1169-1264.]  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  KIEF.  121 

turn  gave  no  quarter.  Nine  thousand  men  were  killed,  and 
only  sixty  prisoners  taken.  luri  threw  off  his  royal  clothes, 
wore  out  the  strength  of  three  horses,  and  with  the  fourth 
just  managed  to  reach  Vladimir.  This  was  the  battle  of 
Lipetsk,  near  Pereiaslavl-Zalieski  in  twelve  hundred  and  six- 
teen. Konstantin  then  became  Grand  Prince  of  Vladimir, 
and  ceded  Suzdal  to  his  brother  luri.  laroslaf  was  obliged 
to  renounce  Novgorod  and  release  the  captive  citizens. 

At  Konstantin's  death,  in  twelve  hundred  and  seventeen, 
luri  regained  the  throne  of  Vladimir.  Under  him  the  expe- 
ditions against  the  Bulgarians  of  the  Volga  and  the  Mordva 
were  continued.  These  expeditions  were  organized  both  by 
land  and  water;  the  infantry  descended  the  Oka  and  the 
Volga  in  boats,  the  cavalry  marched  along  the  banks.  They 
attacked  and  burnt  the  wooden  forts  of  the  Bulgarui,  and 
destroyed  the  population. 

During  a  campaign,  conducted  by  luri  in  person  along  the 
whole  length  of  the  Volga,  he  noticed  a  small  hill  on  its  right 
bank,  near  its  junction  with  the  Oka.  Here,  in  the  midst 
of  the  Mordvan  tribes,  he  founded  Nijni-Novgorod  in  twelve 
hundred  and  twenty.  A  Mordvan  tradition  gives  its  own 
account  of  this  important  event :  "  The  prince  of  the  Russians 
sailed  down  the  Volga ;  on  the  mountain  he  perceived  the 
Mordva  in  a  long  white  coat,  adoring  her  god ;  and  he  said 
to  his  warriors,  '  What  is  that  white  birch  that  bends  and 
sways  up  there,  above  its  nurse,  the  earth,  and  inclines 
towards  the  east  ? '  He  sent  his  men  to  look  nearer,  and 
they  came  back  and  said,  '  It  is  not  a  birch  that  bends  and 
sways,  it  is  the  Mordva  adoring  her  god.  In  their  vessels 
they  have  a  delicious  beer,  pancakes  hang  on  sticks,  and  their 
priests  cook  their  meat  in  caldrons.'  The  elders  of  the 
Mordva,  hearing  of  the  arrival  of  the  Russian  prince,  sent 
young  men  with  gifts  of  meat  and  beer.  But  on  the  road 
the  young  men  ate  the  meat  and  drank  the  beer,  and  brought 
the  Russian  prince  only  earth  and  water.  The  prince  was 


122  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

rejoiced  at  this  present,  which  he  considered  as  a  mark  of 
submission  of  the  Mordva.  He  continued  to  descend  the 
Volga :  where  he  threw  a  handful  of  this  earth  on  the  bank, 
a  town  sprang  up ;  where  he  threw  a  pinch  of  this  earth,  a 
village  was  born.  It  was  thus  that  the  Mordvan  land  became 
subject  to  the  Russians." 

ROMAN  AND  HIS  SON  DANIEL  IN  GALITCH. 

Galitch  offers  a  remarkable  contrast  to  Suzdal ;  peopled  by 
Khorvats,  or  White  Kroats,  it  had  preserved  a  purely  Sla- 
vonic character,  in  spite  of  its  conquest  by  Variag  princes. 
"  The  prince,"  says  M.  Kostomarof,  "  was  a  prince  of  the  old 
Slavonic  type.  He  was  elected  by  a  popular  assembly,  and 
kept  his  crown  by  its  consent." 

The  assembly  itself  was  governed  by  the  richest  men  of  the 
country,  the  boyars.  Under  the  influence  of  Polish  and  Hun- 
garian ideas  the  boyars  had  raised  themselves  above  the  mass 
of  the  people,  and  formed  a  strong  aristocracy,  which  really 
ruled  the  country.  When  laroslaf  Osmomuisl,  a  hero  glori- 
fied in  the  Song  of  Igor,  neglected  his  lawful  wife  Olga  for 
his  mistress  Anastasia,  the  nobles  rose,  burnt  Anastasia  alive, 
and  obliged  the  prince  to  send  away  his  natural  son,  and  to 
recognize  his  legitimate  son  Vladimir  as  his  heir. 

When  Vladimir  became  prince,  he  lost  no  time  in  incur- 
ring their  hatred.  He  was  accused  of  abandoning  himself  to 
vice  and  drunkenness,  of  despising  the  councils  of  wise  men, 
of  dishonoring  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  nobles,  and  of 
having  married  as  his  second  wife  the  widow  of  a  priest.  It 
did  not  need  all  this  to  exhaust  the  patience  of  the  Gallicians. 
They  summoned  Vladimir  to  give  up  the  woman  that  they 
might  punish  her.  Vladimir  took  fright,  and  fled  to  Hun- 
gary with  his  family  and  his  treasures.  This  was  all  the 
boyars  desired,  and  they  offered  the  throne  to  Roman,  Prince 
of  Volhynia,  in  eleven  hundred  and  eighty-eight.  But  Bela, 


1169-1264.]  AFTER  THE  FALL  OF  KIEF.  123 

King  of  Hungary,  brought  back  the  fugitive  prince  with  an 
army,  and  entered  Galitch.  There  he  suddenly  changed  his 
mind,  and  coveted  this  beautiful  country,  rich  in  salt  and 
minerals,  for  himself.  He  threw  his  protege,  Vladimir,  into 
prison,  and  proclaimed  his  own  son  Andrei.  The  Hungarian 
yoke  seemed  naturally  more  heavy  to  the  Gallicians  than  the 
authority  of  their  easy-going  princes.  They  expelled  the 
strangers,  and  recalled  Vladimir,  who  had  found  means  to 
escape,  and  had  taken  refuge  with  Frederick  Barbarossa. 
When  Vladimir  died,  Roman  of  Volhynia  resolved  at  all 
hazards  to  enter  Galitch.  His  rival  had  previously  appealed 
to  the  Hungarians,  so  he  applied  to  the  Poles,  and,  with  an 
auxiliary  army  given  him  by  Kasimir  the  Just,  he  recon- 
quered Galitch.  The  turbulent  boyars  had  at  last  found 
their  master. 

This  time  Roman  held  the  crown,  not  by  election,  but  by 
conquest.  He  resolved  to  subdue  the  proud  aristocracy.  The 
Polish  bishop,  Kadlubek,  a  contemporary  writer,  who  sym- 
pathized with  the  oligarchs,  draws  a  frightful  picture  of  the 
vengeance  exercised  by  Roman  on  his  enemies.  They  were 
quartered,  buried  alive,  riddled  with  arrows,  delivered  over 
to  horrible  tortures.  He  had  promised  pardon  to  those  who 
had  fled ;  but  when  they  returned,  he  accused  them  of  con- 
spiracy, condemned  them  to  death,  and  confiscated  their  goods. 
"  To  eat  a  drop  of  honey  in  peace,"  he  said  cynically,  "  you 
must  first  kill  the  bees."  The  Russian  chroniclers,  on  the 
contrary,  praise  him  highly.  He  was  another  Monomakh,  an 
invincible  and  redoubtable  hero,  who  "  walked  in  the  ways  of 
God,  exterminated  the  heathen,  flung  himself  like  a  lion  upon 
the  infidels,  was  savage  as  a  wild-cat,  deadly  as  a  crocodile, 
swooped  on  his  prey  like  an  eagle."  More  than  once  he  van- 
quished the  Lithuanian  tribes  and  the  Polovtsui ;  in  the  civil 
wars  of  Russia  he  was  likewise  victorious,  and  gave  to  one  of 
his  relations  the  throne  of  Kief.  He  attracted  the  attention 
of  the  great  Pope,  Innocent  the  Third,  who  sent  missionaries 


124  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

to  convert  him  to  the  Catholic  faith,  promising  to  make  him  a 
great  king  by  the  sword  of  Saint  Peter.  Drawing  his  own 
sword,  Roman  proudly  answered  the  envoys  of  Innocent :  "  Has 
the  Pope  one  like  mine  ?  While  I  wear  it  at  my  side,  I  have 
no  need  of  another's  blade."  In  twelve  hundred  and  five, 
when  he  was  engaged  in  a  war  with  Poland,  he  imprudently 
ventured  too  far  from  his  army  on  the  banks  of  the  Vistula, 
and  perished  in  an  unequal  combat.  His  exploits  were  long 
remembered  in  Russia,  and  the  "Chronicle  of  Volhynia"  gives 
him  the  surname  of  "  the  Great,"  and  "  the  Autocrat  of  all  the 
Russias."  A  historian  of  Lithuania  relates  that,  after  his  vic- 
tories over  the  barbarous  inhabitants  of  that  country,  he  har- 
nessed the  prisoners  to  the  plough.  Hence  the  popular  saying, 
"  Thou  art  terrible,  Roman ;  the  Lithuanians  are  thy  laboring 
oxen."  Roman  of  Volhynia  is  a  worthy  contemporary  of  the 
autocrat  of  the  northwest,  Andrei  of  Suzdal. 

Roman  left  two  sons,  minors.  Daniel,  the  elder,  was  pro- 
claimed Prince  of  Galitch  in  twelve  hundred  and  five,  but  in 
such  a  turbulent  country,  rent  as  it  was  by  factions,  it  was 
impossible  for  a  child  to  reign  under  the  guardianship  of  his 
mother.  Red  Russia  fell  a  prey  to  a  series  of  civil  wars,  com- 
plicated by  the  intervention  of  Poles  and  Hungarians.  The 
ferocity  shown  by  the  Gallicians  in  their  intestine  struggles 
has  gained  for  them  the  name  of  atheists  in  the  Kievan  Chron- 
icles. The  princes  of  the  blood  of  Saint  Vladimir  were  tor- 
tured and  hung  by  the  boyars.  Daniel  was  first  replaced  on 
the  throne,  then  expelled,  then  again  recalled.  His  infancy 
was  the  toy  of  intriguing  factions.  Mstislaf  the  Bold  also 
came  hither  in  search  of  adventures.  He  chased  the  Hunga- 
rians from  Galitch,  took  the  title  of  Prince,  and  married  his 
daughter  to  Daniel.  Both  were  immediately  obliged  to  turn 
their  arms  against  the  Poles.  Daniel,  whose  character  had  been 
formed  in  such  a  rough  school,  displayed  remarkable  energy 
and  courage  in  these  campaigns.  The  aid  of  the  Polovtsui 
had  to  be  sought  against  these  enemies  from  the  west,  the 


1169-1264.]  AFTER  THE  FALL  .OF  KIEF.  125 

Hungarians  and  the  Poles,  —  now  rivals,  now  allies.  At  the 
death  of  Mstislaf  the  Bold  in  twelve  hundred  and  twenty- 
eight,  Daniel,  who  five  years  previously  had  taken  part  in  the 
battle  of  Kalka  against  the  Tatars,  became  Prince  of  Galitch. 
Towards  the  boyars,  whose  turbulence  had  ruined  the  country, 
he  acted  with  the  salutary  policy  of  Roman,  though  without 
employing  the  same  severity. 

The  great  Mongol  invasion  once  more  expelled  him  from 
Galitch,  which  it  covered  with  ruins.  Daniel,  who  had  fled 
to  Hungary,  did  his  best  to  help  his  unhappy  country.  To 
fill  up  the  void  made  by  the  Mongols  in  the  population,  he 
invited  Germans,  Armenians,  and  Jews,  whom  he  loaded  with 
privileges.  The  economic  consequence  of  this  measure  was 
a  rapid  development  of  commerce  and  industry ;  the  ethno- 
graphic consequence  was  the  introduction  into  Gallicia  of  a 
Jewish  element,  very  tenacious  and  very  persistent,  but  alien 
to  the  dominant  nationality,  and  forming  a  separate  people  in 
the  midst  of  the  Russians.  Daniel  was  one  of  the  last  princes 
to  make  his  submission  to  the  horde.  "  You  have  done  well 
to  come  at  last,"  said  the  khan  of  the  Mongols.  Batui  treated 
him  with  distinction,  allowed  him  to  escape  the  ordinary  hu- 
miliations, and,  seeing  that  the  fermented  milk  of  the  Tatars 
was  not  to  his  taste,  gave  him  a  cup  of  wine.  Daniel,  how- 
ever, bore  with  impatience  the  yoke  of  these  barbarians. 

Feeling  himself  isolated  in  the  general  abasement  of  the 
orthodox  world,  the  Prince  of  Galitch  turned  towards  Rome, 
and  promised  to  do  his  best  for  the  union  of  the  two  churches, 
and  to  add  his  contingent  to  the  crusade  preached  in  Europe 
against  the  Mongols.  Innocent  the  Fourth  called  him  his  dear 
son,  accorded  him  the  title  of  King,  and  sent  him  a  crown  and 
sceptre.  Daniel  was  solemnly  crowned  at  Droguitchin  by 
the  Abbot  of  Messina,  Legate  of  the  Pope,  in  twelve  hundred 
and  fifty-four.  Both  the  crusade  against  the  Asiatics  and  the 
reconciliation  between  the  two  churches  came  to  nothing. 
Daniel  braved  the  reproaches  and  threats  of  Alexander  the 


126  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VII. 

Fourth,  but  kept  the  title  of  King.  He  took  part  in  the  Euro- 
pean wars  with  great  success.  "The  Hungarians,"  says  a 
chronicler,  "  admired  the  order  that  reigned  among  his  troops, 
their  Tatar  weapons,  the  magnificence  of  the  prince,  his  Greek 
habit  embroidered  with  gold,  his  sabre  and  his  arrows,  his 
saddle  enriched  with  jewels  and  precious  metals  richly  chased." 
Encouraged  by  the  Hungarians  and  the  Poles,  he  tried  to 
shake  off  the  yoke  of  the  Mongols,  and  expelled  them  from  a 
few  places ;  but  he  was  soon  obliged  to  bow  to  superior  force, 
and  dismantle  his  fortresses.  No  prince  better  deserved  to 
free  Southern  Russia,  but  his  activity  and  talents  struggled  in 
vain  against  the  fate  of  his  country.  He  terminated  in  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty-four  one  of  the  most  memorable  and  most 
checkered  careers  in  the  history  of  Russia.  The  civil  wars  of 
his  youth,  the  Tatar  invasion  in  his  ripe  age,  the  negotiations 
and  wars  with  Western  Europe,  left  him  no  repose.  After 
him,  Russian  Galitch  passed  to  different  princes  of  his  family. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  it  was  absorbed  into  the  kingdom 
of  Poland  and  was  lost  to  Russia. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS :  NOVGOROD,  PSKOF, 
AND  VIATKA 

Until  1224. 

NOVGOROD  THE  GREAT.  —  STRUGGLES  WITH  THE  PRINCES.  —  NOVGORO- 
DIAN  INSTITUTIONS.  —  COMMERCE.  —  THE  NATIONAL  CHURCH.  —  LIT- 
ERATURE.—  PSKOF  AND  VIATKA. 


NOVGOROD  THE  GREAT.  —  STRUGGLES  WITH  THE  PRINCES. 

NOVGOROD  has  been,  from  the  most  remote  antiquity, 
the  political  centre  of  the  Russia  of  the  northwest.  The 
origin  of  the  Slavs  of  the  Ilmen,  who  laid  the  foundations  of 
it,  is  still  uncertain.  Some  learned  Russians,  such  as  M.  Kos- 
tomarof,  suppose  them  to  belong  to  the  Slavs  of  the  south, 
others  to  the  Slavs  of  the  Baltic ;  others,  again,  like  M.  Bielaef 
and  M.  Ilovaiski,  make  them  a  branch  of  the  Krivitch  or 
Smolensk  Slavs.  We  find  the  Novgorodians,  at  the  opening 
of  Russian  history,  at  the  head  of  the  confederation  of  tribes 
which  first  expelled  and  then  recalled  the  Variagi  to  reign 
over  Russia. 

Novgorod,  from  very  ancient  times,  was  divided  into  two 
parts,  separated  by  the  course  of  the  Volkhof,  which  rises  in 
Lake  Ilmen  and  falls  into  the  Ladoga.  On  the  right  bank 
was  the  side  of  Saint  Sophia,  where  laroslaf  the  Great  built 
his  celebrated  cathedral ;  where  the  Novgorod  kreml  was 
situated,  enclosing  both  the  palaces  of  the  archbishop  and  the 
prince;  and  where  the  famous  Russian  monument  was  con- 
secrated in  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-two.  On  the  left  bank 


128  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

is  the  side  of  commerce,  with  its  Court  of  laroslaf ;  the  bridge 
which  joins  the  two  halves  of  the  city  is  celebrated  in  the 
annals  of  Novgorod.  The  side  of  Saint  Sophia  includes  the 
Nerevsky  or  Nerevian  quarter,  as  well  as  those  of  Zagorodni, 
or  the  suburbs,  and  of  the  potters.  The  side  of  commerce 
comprised  the  quarters  of  the  carpenters  and  Slavs.  Ancient 
documents  also  speak  of  a  Prussian  or  Lithuanian  quarter. 
Some  of  these  names  seem  to  indicate  that  many  races  have 
concurred,  as  in  ancient  Rome,  to  form  the  city  of  Novgorod. 
Gilbert  of  Lannoy,  who  visited  the  republic  about  fourteen 
hundred  and  thirteen,  has  left  us  this  description  of  it :  "  Nov- 
gorod is  a  prodigiously  large  town,  situated  in  a  beautiful 
plain,  in  the  midst  of  vast  forests.  The  soil  is  low,  subject 
to  inundations,  marshy  in  places.  The  town  is  surrounded 
by  imperfect  ramparts,  formed  of  gabions ;  the  towers  are  of 
stone."  Portions  of  these  ramparts  still  exist,  and  allow  us  to 
form  an  idea  of  the  immense  extent  of  the  ancient  city.  The 
kreml  forms  its  acropolis.  The  cathedral  has  preserved  its 
frescos  of  the  twelfth  century ;  the  pillars  painted  with  images 
of  saints  on  a  golden  ground ;  the  imposing  figure  of  Christ  oil 
the  cupola ;  the  banner  of  the  Virgin,  which  was  to  revive  the 
courage  of  the  besieged,  on  the  ramparts ;  the  tombs  of  Saint 
Vladimir  laroslavitch,  of  the  Archbishop  Nikita,  by  whose 
prayers  a  fire  was  extinguished,  of  Mstislaf  the  Brave,  the  de- 
voted defender  of  Novgorod,  and  of  many  other  saints  and 
illustrious  people.  Without  counting  the  tributary  cities  of 
Novgorod,  such  as  Pskof,  Ladoga,  Izborsk,  Veliki-Luki,  Sta- 
raia-Rusa,  or  Old  Russia,  Torjok,  Biejitchi,  its  primitive  terri- 
tory was  divided  into  five  counties,  which  included  the  land 
to  the  south  of  the  lakes  Ladoga  and  Onega.  Ijs  conquests 
formed  five  bailiwicks  or  cantons,  occupying  the  whole  of 
Northern  Russia,  and  extending  as  far  as  Siberia.  These  bai- 
liwicks were  the  Zavolotche",  or  the  land  lying  beyond  the 
canton,  between  the  Onega  and  the  Mezen ;  Russian  Lapland  ; 
Permia,  on  the  Upper  Kama;  Petchora,  on  the  river  of  the 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE  KUSSIAN  REPUBLICS.  129 

same  name ;  and  lugria,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Ural  Moun- 
tains. To  these  we  must  add  Ingria,  Karelia,  and  part  of 
Livonia  and  Esthonia. 

Novgorod,  which  had  summoned  the  Variag  princes,  was 
too  powerful,  with  one  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  and 
three  hundred  thousand  subjects,  to  allow  itself  to  be  tyran- 
nized over.  An  ancient  tradition  speaks  vaguely  of  a  revolt 
against  Rurik  the  Old  under  the  hero  Vadim.  Sviatoslaf,  the 
conqueror  of  the  Bulgaria  of  the  Danube,  undertook  to  govern 
it  by  mere  agents,  but  Novgorod  insisted  on  having  one  of  his 
sons  for  its  prince.  "  If  you  do  not  come  to  reign  over  us," 
said  the  citizens,  "  we  shall  know  how  to  find  ourselves  other 
princes."  laroslaf  the  Great,  as  a  reward  for  their  devotion, 
accorded  them  immense  privileges,  of  which  no  record  can  be 
found,  but  which  are  constantly  invoked  by  the  Novgorodians, 
as  were  the  true  or  false  charters  of  Charles  the  Great  by  the 
German  cities.  These  republicans  could  not  exist  without  a 
prince,  but  they  rarely  kept  one  long.  The  assembly  of  the 
citizens,  the  vetche,  convoked  by  the  bell  in  the  Court  of 
laroslaf,  was  the  real  sovereign.  The  republic  called  itself 
"  My  Lord  Novgorod  the  Great."  "  Who  can  equal  God  and 
the  great  Novgorod  ?  "  was  a  popular  saying.  From  the  dis- 
tance of  the  city  from  the  Russia  of  the  Dnieper,  and  its  posi- 
tion towards  the  Baltic  and  Western  Europe,  it  took  little 
part  in  the  civil  wars  of  which  Kief  was  the  object  and  the 
centre.  The  Novgorodians  profited  by  this  in  a  certain  sense ; 
for,  in  the  midst  of  the  strifes  of  princes  and  of  frequent 
changes  in  the  grand  principality,  no  sovereign  was  strong 
enough  to  give  them  a  master.  They  could  choose  between 
princes  of  the  rival  families.  It  could  impose  conditions  on 
him  whom  they  chose  to  reign  over  them.  If  discontented 
with  his  management,  they  expelled  the  prince  and  his  band 
of  antrustions.  According  to  the  accustomed  formula,  "  they 
made  a  reverence,  and  showed  him  the  way  "  to  leave  Novgo- 
rod. Sometimes,  to  hinder  his  evil  designs,  they  kept  him 

.         VOL.  I.  9 


130  HISTOEY   OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

prisoner  in  the  archbishop's  palace,  and  it  was  left  to  his 
successor  to  set  him  at  liberty.  Often  a  revolution  was 
accompanied  by  a  general  pillage  of  the  partisans  of  the 
fallen  prince,  and  they  were  even  drowned  in  the  Volkhof. 
A  Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  Sviatopolk,  wished  to  force  his  son 
on  them.  "  Send  him  here,"  said  the  Novgorodians,  "  if  he 
has  a  spare  head."  The  princes  themselves  contributed  to 
the  frequent  changes  of  reign.  They  felt  themselves  only 
half-rulers  in  Novgorod,  so  they  accepted  any  other  appanage 
with  joy.  Thus,  in  eleven  hundred  and  thirty-two,  Vsevolod 
Gabriel  abandoned  Novgorod  to  reign  at  Pereiaslavl.  When 
his  hopes  of  Kief  were  crushed,  and  he  wished  to  return  to 
Novgorod,  the  citizens  rejected  him.  "  You  forgot  your  oath 
to  die  with  us,  you  have  sought  another  principality ;  go 
where  you  will."  Presently  they  thought  better  of  it,  and 
took  him  back.  Four  years  afterwards  he  was  again  obliged 
to  fly.  In  a  great  vetche,  to  which  the  citizens  of  Pskof  and 
Ladoga  were  summoned,  they  solemnly  condemned  the  exile, 
after  reading  the  heads  of  very  characteristic  accusations  : 
"  He  took  no  care  of  the  poorer  people ;  he  desired  to  estab- 
lish himself  at  Pereiaslavl ;  at  the  battle  of  Mount  Idanof, 
against  the  men  of  Suzdal,  he  and  his  drujina  were  the  first 
to  leave  the  battle-field ;  he  was  fickle  in  the  quarrels  of  the 
princes,  sometimes  uniting  with  the  Prince  of  Tchernigof, 
sometimes  with  the  opposite  party." 

The  power  of  a  prince  of  Novgorod  rested  not  only  on  his 
drujina,  which  always  followed  his  fortunes,  and  on  his  family 
relations  with  this  or  that  powerful  principality,  but  also  on 
a  party  formed  for  him  in  the  heart  of  the  republic.  It  was 
when  the  opposing  party  grew  too  strong  that  he  was  de- 
throned, and  popular  vengeance  exercised  on  his  adherents. 
Novgorod  being  above  all  a  great  commercial  city,  its  divis- 
ions were  frequently  caused  by  diverging  economic  interests. 
Among  the  citizens,  some  were  occupied  in  trade  with  the 
Volga  and  the  East,  others  with  the  Dnieper  and  Greece. 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS.  131 

The  former  naturally  sought  the  alliance  of  the  princes  of 
Suzdal,  masters  of  the  great  Oriental  artery ;  the  latter  that 
of  the  princes  of  Kief  or  Tchernigof,  masters  of  the  road  to 
the  south.  Each  of  the  two  parties  tried  to  establish  a  prince 
of  the  family  whose  protection  they  sought.  If  he  fell,  yet 
succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  town,  he  would  try  to  regain 
his  throne  by  the  arms  of  his  family,  or  to  install  himself  and 
his  drujina  either  at  Pskof,  like  Vsevolod-Gabriel,  who  became 
prince  of  that  town,  or  at  Torjok,  like  laroslaf  of  Suzdal,  and 
thence  he  would  blockade  and  starve  the  great  city.  The 
Prince  of  Suzdal  was  soon  the  most  formidable  neighbor  of 
Novgorod.  We  have  seen  that  Andrei  Bogoliubski  sent  an 
army  against  it,  then  that  his  nephew  laroslaf  besieged  his 
ancient  subjects  till  Mstislaf  the  Bold  freed  them  by  the  battle 
of  Lipetsk  in  twelve  hundred  and  sixteen.  He  was  the  son 
of  Mstislaf  the  Brave,  who  had  defended  them  against  Vse- 
volod  Big-Nest,  and  against  Suzdal  and  the  Tchudi.  The 
remains  of  "  the  Brave  "  rest  at  Saint  Sophia,  in  a  bronze 
sarcophagus.  His  son,  "  the  Bold,"  was  of  far  too  restless  a 
nature  to  die  also  at  Novgorod.  He  reduced  the  principality 
to  order,  and  then  assembled  the  citizens  in  the  Court  of 
laroslaf,  and  said  to  them,  "  I  salute  Saint  Sophia,  the  tomb 
of  my  father,  and  you,  Novgorodians.  I  am  going  to  recon- 
quer Galitch  from  the  strangers,  but  I  shall  never  forget  you. 
I  hope  I  may  lie  by  the  tomb  of  my  father,  in  Saint  Sophia." 
The  Novgorodians  in  vain  entreated  him  to  stay.  This  was 
in  twelve  hundred  and  eighteen.  We  have  seen  him  use  his 
last  armies  in  the  troubles  of  the  southeast,  and  die  Prince  of 
Galitch. 

After  his  departure  the  republic  summoned  his  nephew, 
Sviatoslaf,  to  the  throne ;  but  he  could  not  come  to  terms  with 
magistrates  and  a  populace  equally  turbulent.  The  posad- 
nik,  Tverdislaf,  caused  one  of  the  boyars  of  Novgorod  to  be 
arrested.  This  was  the  signal  for  a  general  rising  ;  some 
took  the  part  of  the  boyar,  others  that  of  the  posadnik.  Dur- 


132  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

ing  eight  days  the  bell  of  the  kreml  sounded.  Finally  both 
factions  buckled  on  their  cuirasses  and  drew  their  swords. 
Tverdislaf  raised  his  eyes  to  Saint  Sophia,  and  cried,  "  I  shall 
fall  first  in  the  battle,  or  God  will  justify  me  by  giving  the 
victory  to  my  brothers."  Ten  men  only  perished  in  this  skir- 
mish, and  then  peace  was  re-established.  The  prince,  who 
accused  Tverdislaf  of  being  the  cause  of  the  trouble,  demanded 
that  he  should  be  deposed.  The  vetche  inquired  what  crime 
he  had  committed,.  "  None,"  replied  the  prince,  "  but  it  is 
my  will."  "  I  am  satisfied,"  exclaimed  the  posadnik,  "  as 
they  do  not  accuse  me  of  any  fault ;  as  to  you,  my  brothers, 
you  can  dispose  alike  of  posadniki  and  princes."  The  assem- 
bly then  gave  their  decision.  "  Prince,  as  you  do  not  accuse 
the  posadnik  of  any  fault,  remember  that  you  have  sworn 
to  depose  no  magistrate  without  trial.  He  will  remain  our 
posadnik,  —  we  will  not  deliver  him  to  you."  On  this  Svia- 
toslaf  quitted  Novgorod,  in  twelve  hundred  and  nineteen.  He 
was  replaced  by  Vsevolod,  one  of  his  brothers,  who  was  ex- 
pelled two  years  later. 

The  Suzdalian  party  having  made  some  progress,  they 
recalled  the  same  laroslaf  who  was  beaten  at  Lipetsk,  but  the 
princes  of  Suzdal  were  too  absolute  in  their  ideas  to  be  able  to 
agree  with  the  Novgorodians.  laroslaf  was  again  put  to  flight, 
and  replaced  by  Vsevolod  of  Smolensk,  who  was  expelled  in 
his  turn.  The  Grand  Prince  of  Suzdal  now  interposed,  levied 
a  contribution  on  Novgorod,  and  a  prince  of  Tchernigof  was 
imposed  on  them,  who  hastened  in  twelve  hundred  and 
twenty-five  to  return  to  the  south  of  Russia.  In  seven  years 
the  Novgorodians  had  five  times  changed  their  rulers.  laro- 
slaf himself  came  back  for  a  third  and  even  a  fourth  time. 
A  famine  so  much  reduced  the  Novgorodians  that  forty-two 
thousand  corpses  were  buried  in  two  cemeteries  alone.  These 
proud  citizens  implored  strangers  to  take  them  as  slaves  for 
the  price  of  a  morsel  of  bread.  The  same  year  a  fire  destroyed 
the  whole  of  one  quarter  of  Novgorod.  These  calamities  sub- 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS.  133 

dued  their  turbulence.  laroslaf  succeeded  in  governing  them 
despotically  till  he  was  called  to  fill  the  throne  of  the  Grand 
Prince  in  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-six.  He  left  them,  as 
their  prince,  his  son,  Alexander  Nevski. 


NOVGORODIAN  INSTITUTIONS.  —  COMMERCE.  —  THE  NA- 
TIONAL CHURCH.— LITERATURE. 

From  the  fact  that  no  dynasty  of  princes  could  establish 
itself  at  Novgorod,  that  no  princely  band  could  take  a  place 
among  the  native  aristocracy,  it  follows  that  the  republic  kept 
its  ancient  liberties  and  customs  intact,  under  the  short  reigns 
of  its  rulers.  In  all  Russian  cities,  it  is  true,  the  country  ex- 
isted side  by  side  with  the  prince  and  boyars,  the  assembly  of 
citizens  side  by  side  with  the  prince's  men,  and  the  native  mili- 
tia side  by  side  with  the  foreign  drujina  ;  but  at  Novgorod  the 
country,  the  vetche,  and  the  municipal  militia  had  retained  more 
vigor  than  elsewhere.  The  town  was  more  powerful  than  the 
prince,  who  reigned  by  virtue  of  a  constitution,  traces  of  which 
may  be  observed,  no  doubt,  in  other  regions  of  Russia,  but 
which  is  found  in  its  original  form  at  Novgorod  alone.  Each 
new  monarch  was  compelled  to  take  an  oath,  by  which  he 
bound  himself  to  observe  the  laws  and  privileges  of  laroslaf  the 
Great.  This  constitution,  like  the  pacta  conventa  of  Poland, 
signified  distrust,  and  was  intended  to  limit  the  power  of  the 
prince  and  his  men.  The  revenues  to  which  he  had  a  right, 
and  which  formed  his  civil  list,  were  carefully  limited,  as  also 
were  his  judicial  and  political  functions.  He  levied  tribute 
on  certain  cantons,  and  was  entitled  to  the  commutation  for 
crimes  as  well  as  to  certain  fines.  In  some  bailiwicks  he 
had  his  lieutenant,  and  Novgorod  had  its  own.  He  could  not 
execute  justice  without  help  of  the  posadnik,  nor  reverse  any 
judgment;  nor,  above  all,  take  the  suit  beyond  Novgorod. 
This  was  what  the  Novgorodians  feared  most,  and  with  reason, 
day  when  the  people  of  Novgorod  bethought  themselves 


134  HISTORY   OF   RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

of  appealing  to  the  tribunal  of  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow 
was  fatal  to  the  independence  of  the  republic.  In  the  con- 
flicts between  the  men  of  the  prince  and  those  of  the  city,  a 
mixed  court  delivered  judgment.  The  prince,  no  more  than 
his  men,  could  acquire  villages  in  the  territory  of  Novgorod, 
nor  create  colonies.  He  was  forbidden  to  hunt  in  the  woods 
of  Staraia  Rusa  except  in  the  autumn,  and  had  to  reap  his 
harvests  at  a  specified  season.  Though  they  thus  mistrusted 
their  prince,  the  Novgorodians  had  need  of  him  to  moderate 
the  ancient  Slav  anarchy.  As  in  the  days  of  Rurik,  "  family 
armed  itself  against  family,  and  there  was  no  justice."  In 
Novgorod  the  vetche  had  more  extensive  powers,  and  acted 
more  regularly  than  in  the  other  Russian  cities.  It  was  the 
vetche  which  nominated  and  expelled  princes,  imprisoned 
them  in  the  archiepiscopal  palace,  and  formally  accused  them ; 
elected  and  deposed  the  archbishops,  decided  peace  and  war, 
judged  the  State  criminals.  According  to  the  old  Slav  custom, 
preserved  in  Poland  till  the  fall  of  the  republic,  the  decisions 
were  always  made,  not  by  a  majority,  but  by  unanimity  of 
voices.  It  was  a  kind  of  liberum  veto.  The  majority  had  the 
resource  of  drowning  the  minority  in  the  Volkhof.  The  prince 
as  well  as  the  posadnik,  the  boyars  as  well  as  the  people,  had 
the  right  of  convoking  the  vetche.  It  met  sometimes  in  the 
Court  of  laroslaf,  sometimes  in  Saint  Sophia's.  As  Poland 
had  its  confederations,  its  "  diets  under  the  shield,"  Novgorod 
occasionally  saw  on  the  banks  of  the  Volkhof  two  rival  and 
hostile  assemblies,  which  often  came  to  blows  on  the  bridge. 
Before  being  submitted  to  the  general  assembly,  the  questions 
were  sometimes  deliberated  in  a  smaller  council,  composed  of 
notable  citizens,  of  acting  or  past  magistrates. 

The  chief  Novgorodian  magistrates  were,  first,  the  posad- 
nik, called  by  contemporary  German  writers  the  burgomaster, 
who  was  changed  nearly  as  often  as  the  prince.  The  posad- 
nik was  chosen  from  some  of  the  influential  families,  one  of 
which  alone  gave  a  dozen  posadniki  to  Novgorod.  The  first 


TYPES    OF    NOVGOROD. 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE   KUSSIAN   REPUBLICS.  135 

magistrate  was  charged  to  defend  civic  privileges,  and  shared 
with  the  prince  the  judicial  power  and  the  right  of  distribut- 
ing the  taxes.  He  governed  the  city,  commanded  its  army, 
directed  its  diplomacy,  sealed  the  acts  with  its  seal.  The  sec- 
ond officer  was  the  tidsatski,  who  was  a  military  chief,  a  colonel 
who  had  the  captains  of  the  town  militia  under  his  orders. 
He  had  a  special  tribunal,  and  seems  to  have  been  specially 
intrusted  with  the  defence  of  the  rights  of  the  people,  thus 
recalling  the  Roman  tribunes.  And  besides  the  captains  there 
was  a  starosta,  a  sort  of  district  mayor,  for  each  quarter  of  the 
town. 

The  chief  document  of  the  Novgorodian  law  is  the  Letter  of 
Justice,  of  which  the  definite  publication  may  be  placed  at 
fourteen  hundred  and  seventy-one.  It  contains  the  same  prin- 
ciples as  the  Code  of  laroslaf  the  Great.  As  in  all  the  early 
Germanic  and  Scandinavian  laws,  we  find  the  right  of  private 
revenge,  the  fixed  price  of  blood,  the  "  boot,"  or  fine  for  in- 
jury inflicted,  the  oath  admitted  as  evidence,  the  judgment 
of  God,  the  judicial  duel,  which  was  still  resorted  to  by  Nov- 
gorod even  after  its  decadence,  in  the  sixteenth  century.  We 
also  find  records  of  corporal  punishments.  The  thief  was  to 
be  branded ;  on  the  second  relapse  into  crime,  he  was  to  be 
hung.  Territorial  property  acquires  a  greater  importance, 
and,  a  sure  evidence  of  Muscovite  influence,  a  second  court  of 
appeal  is  admitted,  —  the  appeal  to  the  tribunal  of  the  Grand 
Prince. 

From  a  social  point  of  view,  the  constitution  of  Novgorod 
presents  other  analogies  with  the  constitution  of  Poland.  Great 
inequality  then  existed  between  the  different  classes  of  society. 
An  aristocracy  of  boyars  had  ultimately  formed  itself,  whose 
internal  quarrels  agitated  the  town.  Below  the  boyars  came 
the  dieti  boyarskiv,  a  kind  of  inferior  nobility ;  then  the  dif- 
ferent classes  of  citizens,  the  merchantmen,  the  black  people, 
and  the  peasants.  The  merchants  formed  an  association 
of  their  own,  a  sort  of  guild,  round  the  Church  of  Saint 


136  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

John.  Military  societies  also  existed,  bands  of  independent 
adventurers  or  followers  of  some  boyar  who,  impelled  by  hun- 
ger or  a  restless  spirit,  sought  adventures  afar  on  the  great 
rivers  of  Northern  Russia,  pillaging  alike  friends  and  enemies, 
or  establishing  military  colonies  in  the  midst  of  Tchud  or 
Finnish  tribes. 

The  soil  of  Novgorod  was  sandy,  marshy,  and  unproductive : 
hence  the  famines  and  pestilences  that  so  often  depopulated 
the  country.  Novgorod  was  forced  to  extend  itself  in  order 
to  live ;  it  became  therefore  a  commercial  and  colonizing  city. 
In  the  tenth  century  Konstantin  relates  how  the  Slavs  left 
Nemogard,  or  Novgorod,  descended  the  Dnieper  by  Milinisca, 
or  Smolensk,  Teliutza,  or  Lubetch,  Tchernigof,  Vuishegorod, 
Kief,  and  Vititchevo ;  crossed  the  Cataracts  of  the  Dnieper, 
passed  the  naval  stations  of  Saint  Gregory  and  Saint  Etherius,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  spread  themselves  over  all  the  shores 
of  the  Greek  Empire.  The  Oriental  coins  and  jewels  found  in 
the  barrows  of  the  Ilmen  show  that  the  Novgorodians  had  an 
early  and  extensive  commerce  with  the  East.  "VVe  see  them 
exchange  iron  and  weapons  for  the  precious  metals  found  by 
the  lugrians  in  the  mines  of  the  Urals.  They  traded  with  the 
Baltic  Slavs ;  and  when  the  latter  lost  their  independence, 
and  a  flourishing  centre,  Wisby,  was  formed  in  the  Isle  of 
Gothland,  Novgorod  turned  to  this  side  also.  In  the  twelfth 
century  there  was  a  Gothic  market  and  a  Variag  Church  at 
Novgorod,  and  a  Novgorodian  Church  in  Gothland.  When 
the  Germans  began  to  dispute  the  commerce  of  the  Baltic 
with  the  Scandinavians,  Novgorod  became  the  seat  of  a  Ger- 
man market,  which  finally  absorbed  the  Gothic  one.  When 
the  Hanse  League  became  the  mistress  of  the  North,  we  find 
the  Germans  established  not  only  at  Novgorod,  but  at  Pskof 
and  Ladoga,  at  all  the  outlets  of  the  network  of  Novgorodian 
lakes.  There  they  obtained  considerable  privileges,  even  the 
right  to  acquire  pasture-land.  They  were  masters,  and  at  home 
in  their  fortified  markets,  in  their  stockade  of  thick  planks, 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS.  137 

where  no  Russian  had  the  right  to  penetrate  without  their 
leave.  This  German  trading  company  was  governed  by  the 
most  narrow  and  exclusive  ideas.  No  Russian  was  allowed 
to  belong  to  the  company,  nor  to  carry  the  wares  of  a  German, 
an  Englishman,  a  Walloon,  or  a  Fleming.  The  company  au- 
thorized a  wholesale  commerce  only,  and,  to  maintain  its  goods 
at  a  high  price,  it  forbade  imports  beyond  a  certain  amount. 
"  In  a  word,"  says  a  German  writer,  Riesenkampf,  in  "  Der 
Deutsche  Hof,"  "  during  three  centuries  the  Hanse  League 
held  a  monopoly  of  all  the  external  commerce  of  Northern 
Russia.  If  we  inquire  what  profit  or  loss  it  brought  this 
country,  we  must  recognize  that,  thanks  to  it,  Novgorod  and 
Pskof  were  deprived  of  a  free  commerce  with  the  West. 
Russia,  in  order  to  satisfy  the  first  wants  of  civilization,  fell 
into  a  state  of  complete  independence.  It  was  abandoned 
to  the  good  pleasure  and  pitiless  egotism  of  the  German  mer- 
chants." 

The  ecclesiastical  constitution  of  Novgorod  presents  a  spe- 
cial character.  In  the  rest  of  Russia  the  clergy  was  Russian- 
orthodox.  At  Novgorod  it  was  Novgorodian  before  every- 
thing. It  was  only  in  the  twelfth  century  that  the  Slavs  of 
Ilmen,  who  had  been  the  last  to  be  converted,  could  have  an 
archbishop  that  was  neither  Greek  nor  Kievan,  but  of  their 
own  race.  From  that  time  the  archbishop  was  elected  by  the 
citizens,  by  the  vetche.  Without  waiting  to  be  invested  by  the 
metropolitan  bishop  at  Kief,  he  was  at  once  installed  in  his 
episcopal  palace.  He  was  one  of  the  great  personages,  the  first 
dignitary  of  the  republic.  In  public  acts  his  name  was  placed 
before  the  others.  "  With  the  blessing  of  Archbishop  Moses," 
says  one  letter-patent,  "posadnik  Daniel  and  tuisatski  Abra- 
ham salute  you."  He  had  a  superiority  over  the  prince 
on  the  ground  of  being  a  native  of  the  country,  whilst  the 
descendant  of  Rurik  was  a  foreigner.  In  return,  the  reve- 
nues of  the  archbishop,  the  treasures  of  Saint  Sophia,  were  at 
the  service  of  the  republic.  In  the  fourteenth  century  we  find 


138  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

an  archbishop  building  at  his  own  expense  a  kreml  of  stone. 
In  the  fifteenth  century  the  riches  of  the  cathedral  were  em- 
ployed to  ransom  the  Russian  prisoners  captured  by  the 
Lithuanians.  The  Church  of  Novgorod  was  essentially  a 
national  church ;  the  ecclesiastics  took  part  in  the  temporal 
affairs,  the  laity  in  the  spiritual.  In  the  fourteenth  century 
the  vetche  put  to  death  the  heretical  strigolniki,  proscribed 
ancient  superstitions,  and  burnt  the  sorcerers.  As  the  citi- 
zens of  Novgorod  nominated  their  archbishop,  they  could 
also  depose  him.  The  orthodox  religion  extended  with  the 
Novgorod  colonization  among  the  Finnish  tribes.  In  oppo- 
sition to  the  Finns,  the  interests  of  the  Church  and  the 
republic  were  identical.  It  was  religion  that  contributed  to 
the  splendor  of  the  city,  and  that  specially  profited  by  its 
wealth.  Novgorod  was  full  of  churches  and  monasteries, 
founded  by  the  piety  of  private  individuals.  Novgorod,  which 
had  shaken  off  the  political  supremacy  of  Kief,  wished  also  to 
free  itself  from  its  religious  domination,  and  no  longer  to  be 
obliged  to  seek  on  the  Dnieper  the  investiture  of  its  arch- 
bishop, but  to  make  him  an  independent  metropolitan.  It 
failed.  When  Moscow  became  of  importance,  she  threatened 
not  only  the  political,  but  the  religious  supremacy  of  Novgo- 
rod. Religion  was,  in  the  hands  of  the  Muscovite  princes,  an 
instrument  of  government.  The  Novgorodian  prelate  always 
made  common  cause  with  his  fellow-citizens,  and  endured  with 
them  their  master's  bursts  of  anger. 

The  literature  of  Novgorod  was  as  national  as  the  Church 
herself.  The  pious  chronicles  of  the  Novgorodian  convents 
shared  all  the  quarrels  and  all  the  passions  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.  "  Even  their  style,"  says  M.  Bestujef,  "  reflects  viv- 
idly the  active,  business-like  character  of  the  Novgorodians. 
It  is  short,  and  sparing  of  words  ;  but  their  narratives  em- 
brace more  completely  than  those  of  other  Russian  countries 
all  the  phases  of  actual  life.  They  are  the  historians,  not 
merely  of  the  princes  and  boyars,  but  of  the  whole  city.  The 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS.  139 

lives  of  the  saints  are  the  lives  of  Novgorodian  saints ;  the 
miracles  they  relate  are  to  the  glory  of  the  city.  They  tell 
you,  for  example,  that  Christ  appeared  to  the  artist  charged 
with  the  paintings  under  the  dome  of  Saint  Sophia,  and  said 
to  him :  '  Do  not  represent  me  with  my  hand  extended  for 
blessing,  but  with  my  hand  closed,  because  in  it  I  hold  Nov- 
gorod, and  when  it  is  opened  it  will  be  the  end  of  the  city.' " 
The  tale  of  the  panic  excited  among  the  soldiers  of  Andrei 
Bogoliubski  by  the  image  of  the  Virgin  wounded  by  a  Suz- 
dalian  arrow  was  spread  abroad.  Novgorod  has  its  own 
cycle  of  epic  songs.  Its  heroes  are  not  those  of  the  Kievan 
poems.  There  is  Vasili  Buslaevitch,  the  bold  boyar,  who 
with  his  faithful  drujina  stood  up  to  his  knees  in  blood  on 
the  bridge  of  the  Volkhof,  holding  in  check  all  the  muzhiki 
of  Novgorod,  whom  he  had  defied  to  combat.  Vasili  Buslae- 
vitch is  the  true  type  of  these  proud  adventurers,  who  knew 
neither  friend  nor  enemy,  —  a  true  Novgorodian  oligarch,  a 
hero  of  civil  war.  Still  more  popular  was  Sadko,  the  rich 
merchant,  a  kind  of  Novgorodian  Sindbad  or  Ulysses,  a 
worthy  representative  of  a  people  of  merchants  and  adven- 
turers, who  sought  his  fortunes  on  the  waves.  A  tempest 
rose,  and  men  drew  lots  to  decide  who  should  be  sacrificed  to 
the  wrath  of  the  gods.  Sadko  threw  a  little  wooden  ring 
into  the  water,  the  others  flung  in  iron  rings :  O  prodigy ! 
the  others  swam,  his  sank.  He  obeyed  his  destiny,  and 
threw  himself  into  the  waves,  but  he  was  received  in  the 
palace  of  the  king  of  the  sea,  who  tested  him  in  various 
ways  and  wished  him  to  marry  his  daughter.  Then  suddenly 
Sadko  found  himself  on  the  shore  with  great  treasures,  but 
what  were  these  compared  to  the  treasures  of  the  city  ?  "  They 
see  that  I  am  a  rich  merchant  of  Novgorod,  but  Novgorod 
is  still  richer  than  I." 


140  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  VIII. 

PSKOF  AND  VIATKA. 

Of  all  the  towns  subject  to  Novgorod,  Pskof  was  the  most 
important.  On  the  point  formed  by  the  junction  of  the 
Pskova  and  the  VelikaTa  rises  its  kreml,  with  its  crumbling 
ramparts,  its  ruined  gates  and  towers.  These  once  famous 
walls  are  to-day  a  mass  of  ruins,  and  the  street-boys  amuse 
themselves  by  throwing  stones  in  the  Pskova  to  frighten  the 
laundresses.  Pskof  is  only  a  poor  little  place  with  ten  thou- 
sand souls.  Scarce  anything  remains  of  its  past  splendor 
save  the  Cathedral  of  the  Trinity  at  one  end  of  the  kreml. 
There  rest  in  metal  coffins  the  bones  of  the  best-loved  princes, 
Vsevolod-Gabriel  and  Dovmont,  a  converted  Lithuanian  who 
came  in  the  thirteenth  century  to  defend  the  republic  against 
his  own  compatriots.  This  old  town  has  still  many  churches 
and  monasteries ;  the  distant  view  of  it  is  beautiful,  and  on 
fete-days  the  dead  city  seems  to  awake  at  the  chimes  of  its 
innumerable  bells,  which  ring  as  merrily  as  in  the  days  of 
its  glorious  past. 

Nestor  makes  Pskof  the  native  land  of  Saint  Olga.  Its  whole 
history  is  summed  up  in  these  two  facts :  first,  the  struggle 
against  the  Tchudi,  and,  later,  against  the  Germans  of  Livo- 
nia ;  second,  its  efforts  to  become  free  from  Novgorod.  The 
independence  of  the  city  was  ultimately  secured  by  its  wealth 
and  commerce.  The  first  prince  who  ruled  it  as  a  separate 
state,  Vsevolod-Gabriel,  was  expelled  by  his  subjects,  and 
therefore  was  welcomed  with  the  greater  eagerness  by  the 
Pskovians.  When  the  Suzdalian  party  ruled  at  Novgorod,  it 
was  generally  the  contrary  party  that  triumphed  in  Pskof. 
About  twelve  hundred  and  fourteen  the  little  republic  con- 
tracted an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  the  Germans ; 
Pskof  undertook  to  help  them  against  the  Lithuanians,  and 
they  were  to  support  Pskof  against  Novgorod.  This  was 
playing  rather  a  dangerous  game.  In  twelve  hundred  and 
forty,  one  Tverdillo  delivered  the  city  up  to  the  Livonians, 


UNTIL  1224.]  THE  RUSSIAN  REPUBLICS.  141 

and  it  was  not  set  free  till  twelve  hundred  and  forty-two. 
From  this  moment  Pskof  ceased  to  mix  in  the  civil  wars  of 
Novgorod.  It  had  enough  to  do  with  its  own  affairs  and  its 
struggle  against  the  Germans,  Swedes,  and  Lithuanians.  It 
also  claimed  the  title  "  My  Lord  Pskof  the  Great "  ;  but  it 
was  only  in  thirteen  hundred  and  forty-eight  that  the  Nov- 
gorodians,  needing  its  help  against  Magnus,  King  of  Sweden, 
formally  recognized  its  independence,  by  the  treaty  of  Bolstof, 
and  concluded  a  bond  of  fraternal  friendship.  Novgorod  be- 
came the  elder  brother,  and  Pskof  the  younger.  The  organ- 
ization of  Pskof  is  almost  that  of  its  ancient  metropolis.  We 
again  find  the  prince,  the  vetche,  the  division  into  quarters, 
up  to  the  number  of  six,  each  one  having  its  mayor. 

In  the  twelfth  century  a  new  Novgorodian  colony  was 
formed  between  the  Kama  and  the  Viatka,  which  remained  a 
republic  till  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  "  This  distant 
country,"  says  M.  Bestujef-Riumin,  "is  still  quite  Novgorodian. 
When  the  traveller  has  passed  the  Viatka,  he  meets  with  a 
peculiar  mode  of  constructing  the  huts.  There  are  no  longer 
whole  lines  of  hovels  joined  one  to  the  other,  as  on  this  side 
of  the  river,  but  there  is  a  high  house,  where  the  court,  rooms, 
and  offices  are  surrounded  by  a  rampart  of  pales,  and  united 
under  the  same  roof;  in  a  word,  it  is  a  Novgorodian  house. 
You  hear  the  Novgorodian  dialect ;  you  see  the  Novgorodian 
cap.  It  is  the  Novgorod  colonization  still  living."  In  eleven 
hundred  and  seventy-four  some  adventurers  from  the  Great  Re- 
public came  from  the  Kama  to  the  Viatka,  and  advanced  from 
east  to  west,  and  founded  a  colony  on  this  river,  which  is  to- 
day the  village  of  Nikulitsuin.  Another  band  defeated  the 
Tcheremisa,  and  on  their  territory  raised  Koshkarof,  at  present 
called  Kotelnitch.  Then  the  two  bands  reunited,  and  pene- 
trated into  the  Votiak  country.  On  the  right  bank  of  the 
Viatka,  on  the  summit  of  a  high  mountain,  they  perceived  a 
city  surrounded  by  a  rampart  and  a  ditch,  which  contained 
one  of  the  sanctuaries  of  the  people.  As  pious  as  the  compan- 


142  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA,  [CHAP.  VIII. 

ions  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro,  the  Russian  adventurers  prepared 
themselves  for  the  assault  by  a  fast  of  several  days,  then  in- 
voked Saints  Boris  and  Gleb,  and  captured  the  town.  Next, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Khluinovitsa,  in  the  Viatka,  not  very  far 
off,  they  built  the  city  of  Khluinof,  which  became,  under  the 
'  name  of  Viatka,  the  capital  of  all  their  colonies.  It  had  no 
walls,  but  the  houses,  built  close  together,  formed  an  unbroken 
rampart  against  the  enemy,  a  wall  and  defence.  At  the  news 
of  this  success,  other  colonists  flocked  from  Novgorod  and  the 
forests  of  the  north,  and  founded  other  centres  of  population. 
These  bold  pioneers  had  more  than  once  to  reunite,  sometimes 
against  the  aboriginal  Finns  or  the  Tatar  invaders,  sometimes 
against  the  pretensions  of  Novgorod,  or  the  Grand  Prince  of 
Moscow.  We  find  among  them,  as  in  the  metropolis,  boyars, 
merchants,  and  citizens.  They  had  voievodui  or  atamans  for 
their  military  chiefs.  Their  spirit  of  religious  independence 
equalled  their  political  independence.  Jonas,  Metropolitan  of 
Moscow,  writes  angrily  about  the  indocility  of  their  clergy, 
and  avenges  himself  by  blaming  their  morals.  "  Your  spirit- 
ual sons,"  he  wrote  to  the  priests  of  Viatka,  "  live  contrary  to 
the  law.  They  have  five,  six,  or  even  seven  wives.  And  you 
dare  to  bless  these  marriages  ! " 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  LIVONIAN  KNIGHTS.  —  CONQUEST  OF  THE 
BALTIC  PROVINCES  BY  THE  GERMANS. 

1187-1237. 

CONVERSION  OF  LIVONIA.  —  RISE  OF  THE  LIVONIAN  KNIGHTS.  —  UNION 
WITH  THE  TEUTONIC  KNIGHTS. 


CONVERSION  OF  LIVONIA.  —  RISE  OF  THE  LIVONIAN 

KNIGHTS. 

THREE  new  races  of  men,  three  invasions,  from  the  twelfth 
to  the  thirteenth  century,  were  to  modify  the  historical 
development  of  the  different  parts  of  Slavonia;  the  Russia 
of  the  northwest  was  to  make  acquaintance  with  the  Germans, 
Russia  of  the  east  and  south  with  the  Tatar-Mongols,  Russia 
of  the  west  with  the  Lithuanians. 

Part  of  the  Tchud  or  Lett  tribes  of  the  Baltic  were  consid- 
ered by  the  Russian  princes  and  republics  of  the  northwest  as 
their  subjects  or  tributaries.  If  the  Danish  Cnut  the  Great 
had  conquered  Esthonia,  laroslaf  the  Great  had  founded  lurief, 
or  Dorpat,  on  the  Embach  which  falls  into  the  Pei'pus,  and 
then  separated  the  Danish  and  Russian  dominions.  It  sepa- 
rates to-day  the  country  of  the  Finns  into  two  peoples  speaking 
different  dialects,  the  dialect  of  Revel  and  that  of  Dorpat.  A 
Mstislaf,  son  of  Vladimir  Monomakh,  had  conquered  from  the 
Tchudi  the  city  of  Odenpaeh.  In  the  Lett  country  the  princes 
of  Polotsk  had  captured  the  native  fortresses  of  Gersike'  and 
Kokenhausen  on  the  Dwina,  and  extended  their  influence  along 
this  river  to  Thoreida  and  Ascheraden. 


144  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

With  the  German  merchants  Latin  missionaries  soon  began 
to  make  their  appearance  on  the  Baltic.     The  monk  Meinhard, 
sent  by  the  Archbishop  of  Bremen,  converted  the  Livonians, 
and  was  created  Bishop  of  Livonia.     What  the  Germans  really 
brought,  under  the  cloak  of  Christianity,  to  the  Letts  and 
descendants  of  the  Tchud  hero  Kalevy,  and  to  many  other 
Slav,  Lithuanian,  or  Finnish  tribes,  now  extinct,  was  the  ruin 
of  their  national  independence  and  servitude.     The  German 
merchant  and  the  German  missionary  appeared  almost  at  the 
same   time  on  the  Dwina.     The  apostle   Meinhard  built  a 
church  at  Uexkull,  and  a  fortress  round  the  church,  in  eleven 
hundred  and  eighty-seven.     From  this  fatal  day  these  brave 
tribes  lost  their  lands  and  their  liberty.     The  Livonians  soon 
saw  to  what  this  mission  tended.     They  rose  against  the  mis- 
sionaries, and  in  eleven  hundred  and  ninety-eight  the  second 
Bishop  of  Livonia  perished  in  battle.     The  natives  returned  to 
their  gods,  and  plunged  in  the  Dwina  to  wash  off  the  baptism 
they  had  received,  and  to  send  it  back  to  Germany.     Then 
Innocent   the  Third  preached  a  crusade   against  them,   and 
Albert  of  Buxhcewden,  bishop  from  eleven  hundred  and  ninety- 
eight  till  twelve  hundred  and  twenty-nine,  entered  the  Dwina 
with  a  fleet  of  twenty-three  ships,  and  built  the  town  of  Riga, 
which  he  made  his  capital  in  twelve  hundred.     He  was  their 
third  bishop,  and  the  true  founder  of  the  German  rule  in 
Livonia.     The  following  year  he  installed  the  Order  of  the 
Brothers  of  the  Army   of  Christ,  or  the   Sword-bearers,  to 
whom  the  Pope  gave  the  statutes  of  the  Templars.     They 
wore  a  white  mantle,  with  a  red  cross  on  the  shoulders.     The 
greater   number   were   natives    of  Westphalia    and   Saxony. 
Vinno   de   Rohrbach   was   their   first   grand    master.      The 
Livonians,   after   having  implored    the   help  of  the    princes 
of  Polotsk,  marched  on  Riga,  and  suffered  an  entire  defeat  in 
twelve  hundred  and  six.     The  Prince  of  Polotsk  in  his  turn 
besieged  the  city  during  the  bishop's  absence,  but  it  was  saved 
by  the  arrival  of  a  German  flotilla. 


1187-1237.]  THE  LIVONIAN  KNIGHTS.  145 

Three  causes  were  particularly  favorable  to  the  success  of 
the  knights  of  the  sword,  namely :  the  weakness  of  the  princes 
of  Polotsk,  the  intestine  quarrels  of  Novgorod,  which  pre- 
vented it  from  watching  over  Russian  interests,  and  the  di- 
visions among  the  natives,  who  had  not  yet  been  able  to  raise 
their  minds  from  the  conception  of  the  tribe  to  that  of  the 
nation.  The  knights  were  likewise  far  superior  in  their  arms 
and  tactics.  The  German  fortresses  were  solidly  built  in 
cemented  stone,  while  those  of  the  natives  were  ramparts  of 
earth,  wood,  or  loose  stones.  In  vain  they  tried  to  drag  down 
with  ropes  the  palisades  of  the  German  ramparts.  The  Sword- 
bearers  afterwards  undertook  a  series  of  campaigns  against  the 
Livonians  and  the  Sernigals  of  the  Dwina,  and  against  the 
Tchudi  of  the  north  and  the  Letts  of  the  southeast.  If  a  tribe 
declined  baptism  and  obedience,  it  was  delivered  a  prey  to 
fire  and  sword ;  when  it  submitted,  hostages  were  taken,  and 
castles  built  on  its  territory,  these  being  often  merely  German 
reconstructions  of  the  ancient  native  fortresses. 

It  was  in  this  manner  that  Riga,  Kirchholm,  Uexkull, 
Lennewarden,  Ascheraden,  and  Kreuzburg  were  built  on  the 
Dwina;  Neuhausen,  near  the  Peipus,  Wolmar,  Wenden,  Sege- 
vold,  and  Kremon  on  the  Aa ;  Fellin  and  Weissenstein  among 
the  Northern  Tchudi.  The  strangers  managed  to  take  Koken- 
hausen  and  Gersike  from  the  princes  of  Polotsk,  Odenpaeh 
and  Dorpat  from  the  Novgorodians ;  Pskof  was  threatened. 
In  the  north,  Kolyvan  was  bought  from  the  King  of  Denmark, 
after  the  fiercest  disputes.  Under  its  rock  lies  Kolyvan,  a 
Titan  hero  of  Finnish  mythology.  The  town  is  now  called 
Revel. 

The  conquered  country  was  divided  into  fiefs,  some  of 
which  belonged  to  the  Order  by  whom  they  were  distributed 
among  the  knights,  the  rest  were  at  the  disposal  of  the  arch- 
bishop, who  enfeoffed  his  own  men.  The  new  towns  received 
the  constitution  of  the  merchant  cities  of  Liibeck,  Bremen,  or 
Hamburg.  Riga  was  the  most  powerful  of  them.  The 

VOL.  I.  10 


146  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

Archbishop  of  Riga,  the  chapter,  the  town,  and  the  grand  mas- 
ter of  the  Order  often  quarrelled  over  their  respective  rights. 
Their  divisions  were  one  day  to  bring  about  the  decline  of  the 
institution. 


UNION  WITH  THE  TEUTONIC  KNIGHTS. 

About  twelve  hundred  and  twenty-five  another  military 
fraternity  was  established  among  the  Prussian  Lithuanians, 
the  Teutonic  Order,  which,  on  the  remains  of  the  subject 
pagan  tribes,  built  the  towns  of  Thorn,  Marienberg,  Elbing, 
and  Koenigsberg.  The  Teutons  of  Prussia  and  the  knights 
of  Livonia  were  certain  to  be  friendly ;  the  black  cross  frater- 
nized with  the  red,  and,  in  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-seven, 
the  two  orders  united  into  one  association.  The  Teutonic 
landmeister,  Hermann  de  Balk,  became  landmeister  of  Livonia. 
The  grand  master  of  the  Teutonic  Order  took  precedence  of 
all  the  landmeisters.  Strengthened  by  this  alliance,  the 
"  brothers  of  the  army  of  Christ "  were  able  to  impose  the 
most  cruel  servitude  on  the  aboriginal  Letts,  Livonians,  and 
Finns.  These  brave  barbarians  soon  became  peasants  attached 
to  the  glebe.  The  German  nobility  restored  them  their  lib- 
erty at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  but  it  did  not  restore 
them  their  lands. 

The  conquering  and  conquered  races  are  always  separate. 
To  the  Tchud  the  word  Saxa,  meaning  Saxon,  or  German, 
always  signifies  the  master.  A  song  of  the  Tchud  country  of 
Pskof,  called  "  The  Days  of  Slavery,"  deplores  the  time  when 
"  the  banners  of  the  strangers  waved,  when  the  intruders  made 
us  slaves,  enchained  us  as  the  serfs  of  tyrants,  forced  us  to  be 
their  servants.  Brother,  what  can  I  sing  ?  Sadly  sounds  the 
song  of  tears.  The  lot  of  the  slave  is  too  hard."  Another 
song  of  Wiesland  is  entitled  "  The  Days  of  the  Past."  "  The 
past,  that  was  the  time  of  massacre,  a  long  time  of  suffering. 
....  Destroying  fiends  were  unchained  against  us.  The 


1187-1237.]  THE   LIVONIAN  KNIGHTS.  147 

priests  strangled  us  with  their  rosaries,  the  greedy  knights 
plundered  us,  troops  of  brigands  ravaged  us,  armed  murderers 
cut  us  in  pieces.  The  father  of  the  cross  stole  our  riches, 
stole  the  treasure  from  the  hiding-place,  attacked  the  tree,  the 
sacred  tree,  polluted  the  waters  and  the  fountain  of  salvation. 
The  axe  smote  on  the  oak  of  Tara,  the  woful  hatchet  on  the 
tree  of  Kero." 

In  the  Kalevy-poeg,  or  "  The  Son  of  Kalev,"  the  national 
poem  of  the  Tchud-Esthonians,  the  hero,  who  is  the  personifi- 
cation of  the  race,  displays  in  his  various  adventures  a  won- 
derful Titanic  force.  He  swam  the  Gulf  of  Finland,  he 
rooted  up  oak-trees  to  make  his  clubs ;  with  his  horse  and 
his  colossal  harrow  he  ploughed  up  the  land  of  Esthonia ;  he 
exterminated  the  bears  and  the  beasts  of  prey;  he  conquered 
the  magician  of  Finland,  and  the  genii  of  the  caves ;  he  de- 
scended into  hell  and  fought  with  Sarvig  the  horned;  he 
sailed  away  to  explore  the  utmost  limits  of  the  world,  and 
when  the  hot  breath  of  the  spirits  of  the  North  burnt  up  his 
wooden  vessel,  he  continued  his  voyage  in  a  vessel  of  silver. 
He  braved  whirlwinds  at  sea ;  discovered  the  isle  of  flame, 
of  smoke,  and  boiling  water,  which  is  perhaps  Iceland,  where 
the  three  volcanoes  vomit  forth  fire ;  he  encountered  a  gigan- 
tic woman  who  plucked  up  several  sailors  with  the  grass 
for  the  kine,  as  if  the  men  had  been  insects ;  he  rallied  the 
courage  of  his  pilot,  horror-stricken  by  the  flames  with  which 
the  spirits  of  the  North  filled  heaven,  and  said  to  him,  "  Let 
them  send  their  darts  of  fire,  they  will  only  lighten  us  on  our 
way,  since  the  daylight  would  not  accompany  us,  and  the  sun 
has  long  since  gone  to  rest."  He  fought  with  men  whose 
bodies  were  like  dogs,  possibly  the  Esquimaux  of  Greenland, 
and  retraced  his  steps  only  because  a  magician  assured  him 
"  that  the  wall  of  the  world's  end  was  still  far  off."  It  is  at 
the  close  of  the  poem,  when  he  is  told  that  the  men  of  iron 
have  landed,  that  his  unconquerable  heart  is  troubled.  The 
spear  cannot  penetrate  their  armor,  nor  the  axe  break  it.  In 


148  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  IX. 

vain  he  seeks  counsel  at  the  tomb  of  his  father ;  the  tomb  is 
silent,  "  the  leaves  murmur  plaintively,  the  winds  sigh  drearily, 
the  dew  itself  is  troubled,  the  eye  of  the  clouds  is  wet " ;  all 
Esthoiiian  nature  shares  in  the  sinister  forebodings  of  the 
national  hero.  He  raised,  however,  the  battle-cry,  and  his 
warriors  assembled  on  the  Embach.  Bloody  is  the  battle ! 
The  Esthonians  gain  the  victory,  but  what  a  victory  !  The 
bravest  of  them  are  dead,  the  two  brothers  of  Kalevy-poeg 
perish,  his  charger  is  struck  down  by  the  axe  of  a  stranger. 
The  end  of  Esthonia,  the  age  of  slavery,  has  arrived ;  it  is 
time  that  Kalevy-poeg,  the  representative  of  the  heroic  age, 
should  disappear ;  he  who  had  vanquished  the  demon  Sarvig, 
the  sorcerers  of  Finland,  and  the  spirits  of  the  pole,  could  not 
subdue  these  men  whom  an  unknown,  irresistible  force  sus- 
tained superior  to  that  of  the  gods.  Behold  him,  the  captive 
of  Mana,  god  of  death,  his  wrist  held  fast  in  a  rock,  which  is 
the  gate  of  hell.  Long  his  sons  trusted  that  Mana  would 
give  him  back  his  liberty,  and  that  once  again  the  iron  men 
would  feel  the  weight  of  his  arm  ;  but,  like  King  Arthur,  he 
has  never  appeared,  bringing  to  his  people  the  liberty  that  the 
Germans  have  taken  from  them. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  TATAR  MONGOLS.  —  ENSLAVEMENT  OF 

RUSSIA. 

1224  - 1264. 

ORIGIN  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  MONGOLS.  —  BATTLES  OF  THE  KALKA,  OP 
RIAZAN,  OF  KOLOMNA,  AND  OF  THE  SIT.  —  CONQUEST  OF  RUSSIA.  — 
ALEXANDER  NEVSKI.  —  THE  MONGOL  YOKE.  —  INFLUENCE  OF  THE 
TATARS  ON  EUSSIAN  DEVELOPMENT. 


ORIGIN  AND  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  MONGOLS. 

UP  to  this  time  the  history  of  Russia  has  presented  some 
analogy  with  that  of  the  West.  Slavonia,  like  Gaul,  had 
received  Roman  civilization  and  Christianity  from  the  South. 
The  Northmen  had  brought  it  an  organization  which  recalls 
that  of  the  Germans  ;  and  it  had  enjoyed  a  certain  semblance 
of  unity  under  laroslaf,  like  the  West  under  Charles  the  Great, 
while  it  was  afterwards  dismembered  and  divided  like  France 
in  feudal  times.  But  in  the  thirteenth  century  Russia  suffered 
an  unprecedented  misfortune ;  it  was  invaded  and  subjugated 
by  Asiatic  hordes.  This  fatal  event  contributed  quite  as  much 
as  the  disadvantage  of  the  soil  and  the  climate  to  retard  its 
development  by  many  centuries.  "  Nature,"  as  M.  Soloviof 
says,  "  has  been  a  step-mother  to  Russia  "  ;  fate  was  another 
step-mother. 

"  In  those  times,"  say  the  Russian  chroniclers,  "  there  came 
upon  us  for  our  sins,  unknown  nations.  No  one  could  tell 
their  origin,  whence  they  came,  what  religion  they  professed. 
God  alone  knew  who  they  were,  God  and  perhaps  wise  men 


150  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

learned  in  books."  When  we  think  of  the  horror  of  the  whole 
of  Europe  at  the  arrival  of  the  Mongols,  and  the  anguish  of  a 
Frederick,  of  a  Saint  Louis,  an  Innocent  the  Fourth,  we  may 
imagine  the  terror  of  the  Russians.  They  bore  the  first  shock 
of  those  mysterious  foernen,  who  were,  so  the  people  whispered, 
Gog  and  Magog,  who,  according  to  Joinville,  "  were  to  come  at 
the  end  of  the  world,  when  Antichrist  is  to  destroy  everything." 
The  Ta-ta,  or  Tatars,  seem  to  have  been  a  tribe  of  the  great 
Mongol  race,  living  at  the  foot  of  the  Altai,  who  in  spite  of 
their  long-continued  discords  frequently  found  means  to  lay 
waste  China  by  their  invasions.  The  portrait  drawn  of  them 
recalls  in  many  ways  those  already  traced  by  Chinese,  Latin, 
and  Greek  authors,  of  the  Huns,  the  Avars,  and  other  nomad 
peoples  of  former  invasions.  "  The  Ta-tzis,  or  the  Das,"  says 
a  Chinese  writer  of  the  thirteenth  century,  "  occupy  themselves 
exclusively  with  their  flocks ;  they  go  wandering  ceaselessly 
from  pasture  to  pasture,  from  river  to  river.  They  are  igno- 
rant of  the  nature  of  a  town  or  a  wall.  They  are  unacquainted 
with  writing  and  books ;  their  treaties  are  concluded  orally. 
From  infancy  they  are  accustomed  to  ride,  to  aim  their  arrows 
at  rats  and  birds,  and  thus  acquire  the  courage  essential  to 
their  life  of  wars  and  rapine.  They  have  neither  religious 
ceremonies  nor  judicial  institutions.  From  the  prince  to  the 
lowest  among  the  people  all  feed  upon  the  flesh  of  the  animals 
the  skins  of  which  they  use  for  clothing.  The  strongest  among 
them  have  the  largest  and  fattest  morsels  at  feasts ;  the  old 
men  are  put  off  with  the  fragments  that  are  left.  They  respect 
nothing  but  strength  and  bravery;  age  and  weakness  they 
despise.  When  the  father  dies,  the  son  marries  his  youngest 
wives."  A  Mussulman  writer  adds,  that  they  adore  the  sun, 
and  practise  polygamy  and  the  community  of  wives.  This 
pastoral  people  did  not  take  an  interest  in  any  phenomenon  of 
nature  except  the  growth  of  grass.  The  names  they  gave  to 
their  months  were  suggested  by  the  different  aspects  of  the 
prairie.  Born  horsemen,  they  had  no  infantry  in  war.  They 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT   OF   KUSSIA.  151 

were  ignorant  of  the  art  of  sieges.  "  But,"  says  a  Chinese 
author,  "  when  they  wish  to  take  a  town,  they  fall  on  the 
suburban  villages.  Each  leader  seizes  ten  men,  and  every 
prisoner  is  forced  to  carry  a  certain  quantity  of  wood,  stones, 
and  other  materials.  They  use  these  for  filling  up  fosses,  or 
digging  trenches.  In  the  capture  of  a  town  the  loss  of  ten 
thousand  men  was  thought  nothing.  No  place  could  resist 
them.  After  a  siege  all  the  population  was  massacred,  with- 
out distinction  of  old  or  young,  rich  or  poor,  beautiful  or  ugly, 
those  who  resisted  or  those  who  yielded ;  no  distinguished 
person  escaped  death,  if  a  defence  was  attempted." 

It  was  these  rough  tribes  that  Temutchin,  or  Genghis  Khan, 
who  ruled  from  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-four  until  twelve 
hundred  and  twenty-seven,  succeeded  in  uniting  into  one 
nation  after  forty  years  of  obscure  struggles.  Then  in  a  gen- 
eral congress  of  their  princes  he  proclaimed  himself  emperor, 
and  declared  that,  as  there  was  only  one  sun  in  heaven,  there 
ought  to  be  only  one  emperor  on  the  earth.  At  the  head  of 
their  forces  he  conquered  Mantchuria,  the  kingdom  of  Tangut, 
Northern  China,  Turkestan,  and  Great  Bokhara,  which  never 
recovered  from  this  disaster,  and  the  plains  of  Western  Asia 
as  far  as  the  Crimea.  When  he  died,  he  left  to  be  divided 
between  his  four  sons  the  largest  empire  that  ever  existed. 

It  was  during  his  conquest  of  Bokhara  that  his  lieutenant 
Tchep  and  Subudai-bagadur  subdued  in  their  passage  a  mul- 
titude of  Turkish  peoples,  passed  the  Caspian  by  its  southern 
shore,  invaded  Georgia  and  the  Caucasus,  and  in  the  southern 
steppes  of  Russia  came  in  contact  with  the  Polovtsui. 


BATTLES  OF  THE  KALKA,  OF  RIAZAN,  OF  KOLOMNA,  AND 
OF  THE  SIT.  — CONQUEST  OF  RUSSIA. 

The  hereditary  enemies  of  the  Russians  proper,  the  Po- 
lovtsui, asked  the  Christian  princes  for  help  against  these 
Mongols  and  Turks,  who  were  their  brothers  by  a  common 


152  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

origin.  "  They  have  taken  our  country,"  said  they  to  the 
descendants  of  Saint  Vladimir ;  "  to-morrow  they  will  take 
yours."  Mstislaf  the  Bold,  then  Prince  of  Galitch,  persuaded 
all  the  dynasties  of  Southern  Russia  to  take  up  arms  against 
the  Tatars :  his  nephew  Daniel,  Prince  of  Volhynia,  Mstislaf 
Romanovitch,  Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  Oleg  of  Kursk,  Mstislaf 
of  Tchernigof,  Vladimir  of  Smolensk,  Vsevolod,  for  a  short 
time  Prince  of  Novgorod,  responded  to  his  appeal.  To  cement 
his  alliance  with  the  Russians,  Basti,  khan  of  the  Polovtsui, 
embraced  orthodoxy.  The  Russian  army  had  already  arrived 
on  the  Lower  Dnieper,  when  the  Tatar  ambassadors  made 
their  appearance.  "  We  have  come  by  God's  command 
against  our  slaves  and  grooms,  the  accursed  Polovtsui.  Be 
at  peace  with  us ;  we  have  no  quarrel  with  you."  The  Rus- 
sians, with  the  promptitude  and  thoughtlessness  that  charac- 
terized the  men  of  that  time,  put  the  ambassadors  to  death. 
They  then  went  farther  into  the  steppe,  and  encountered  the 
Asiatic  hordes  on  the  Kalka,  a  small  river  running  into  the 
Sea  of  Azof.  The  Russian  chivalry  on  this  memorable  day 
showed  the  same  disorder  and  the  same  ill-advised  eagerness 
as  the  French  chivalry  at  the  opening  of  the  English  wars. 
Mstislaf  the  Bold,  Daniel  of  Galitch,  and  Oleg  of  Kursk  were 
the  first  to  rush  into  the  midst  of  the  infidels,  without  waiting 
for  the  princes  of  Kief,  and  even  without  giving  them  warning, 
in  order  to  gain  for  themselves  the  honors  of  victory.  In  the 
middle  of  the  combat  the  Polovtsui  were  seized  with  a  panic 
and  fell  back  on  the  Russian  ranks,  thus  throwing  them  into 
disorder.  The  rout  became  general,  and  the  leaders  spurred 
on  their  steeds  in  hopes  of  reaching  the  Dnieper. 

Six  princes  and  seventy  of  the  chief  boyars,  or  vo'ievodui, 
remained  on  the  field  of  battle.  It  was  the  Crecy  and  Poi- 
tiers of  the  Russian  chivalry.  Hardly  a  tenth  of  the  army 
escaped  ;  the  Kievans  alone  left  ten  thousand  dead.  The 
Grand  Prince  of  Kief,  however,  Mstislaf  Romanovitch,  still 
occupied  a  fortified  camp  on  the  banks  of  the  Kalka.  Aban- 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  EUSSIA.  153 

doned  by  the  rest  of  the  army,  he  tried  to  defend  himself. 
The  Tatars  offered  to  make  terms ;  he  might  retire  on  pay- 
ment of  a  ransom  for  himself  and  his  drujina.  He  capitu- 
lated, and  the  conditions  were  broken.  His  guard  was  mas- 
sacred, and  he  and  his  two  sons-in-law  were  stifled  under 
planks.  The  Tatars  held  their  festival  over  the  inanimate 
bodies  in  twelve  hundred  and  twenty-four. 

After  this  thunderbolt,  which  struck  terror  into  the  whole 
of  Russia,  the  Tatars  paused  and  returned  to  the  East. 
Nothing  more  was  heard  of  them.  Thirteen  years  passed, 
during  which  the  princes  reverted  to  their  perpetual  discords. 
Those  in  the  northeast  had  given  no  help  to  the  Russians 
of  the  Dnieper;  perhaps  the  Grand  Prince,  luri  the  Sec- 
ond of  Suzdal,  may  have  rejoiced  over  the  humiliation  of 
the  Kievans  and  Gallicians.  The  Mongols  were  forgotten ; 
the  chronicles,  however,  are  filled  with  fatal  presages :  in  the 
midst  of  scarcity,  famine  and  pestilence,  of  incendiaries  in 
the  towns  and  calamities  of  all  sorts,  they  remark  on  the 
comet  of  twelve  hundred  and  twenty-four,  the  earthquake  and 
eclipse  of  the  sun  of  twelve  hundred  and  thirty. 

The  Tatars  were  busy  finishing  the  conquest  of  China,  but 
presently  one  of  the  sons  of  Genghis,  Ugudei  or  Oktai,  sent 
his  nephew  Batui  to  the  West.  As  the  reflux  of  the  Polovtsui 
had  announced  the  invasion  of  twelve  hundred  and  twenty- 
four,  that  of  the  Saxin  nomads,  a  tribe  akin  to  the  Khirghiz, 
who  took  refuge  on  the  lands  of  the  Bulgarians  of  the  Volga, 
warned  men  of  a  new  irruption  of  the  Tatars,  and  indicated 
its  direction.  It  was  no  longer  South  Russia,  but  Suzdalian 
Russia  that  was  threatened.  In  twelve  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  Batui  conquered  the  Great  City,  capital  of  the  half- 
civilized  Bulgarui,  who  were,  like  the  Polovtsui,  ancient  ene- 
mies of  Russia,  and  who  were  to  be  included  in  its  ruin. 
Bolgary  was  given  up  to  the  flames,  and  its  inhabitants  were 
put  to  the  sword.  The  Tatars  next  plunged  into  the  deep 
forests  of  the  Volga,  and  sent  a  sorcerer  and  two  officers  as 


154  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

envoys  to  the  princes  of  Riazan.  The  three  princes  of  Ria- 
zan,  those  of  Pronsk,  Kolomna,  Moscow,  and  Murom  advanced 
to  meet  them.  "  If  you  want  peace,"  said  the  Tatars,  "  give 
us  the  tenth  of  your  goods."  "  When  we  are  dead,"  replied 
the  Russian  princes,  "you  can  have  the  whole."  Though 
abandoned  by  the  princes  of  Tchernigof  and  the  Grand  Prince 
luri  the  Second,  of  whom  they  had  implored  help,  the  dynasty 
of  Riazan  accepted  the  .unequal  struggle.  They  were  com- 
pletely crushed ;  nearly  all  their  princes  remained  on  the 
field  of  battle.  Legend  has  embellished  their  fall.  It  is  told 
how  Feodor  preferred  to  die  rather  than  see  his  young  wife, 
Euphrasia,  the  spoil  of  Batui,  and  how,  on  learning  his  fate, 
she  threw  herself  and  her  son  from  the  window  of  her  cham- 
ber. Oleg  the  Handsome,  found  still  alive  on  the  battle-field, 
repelled  the  caresses,  the  attention,  and  religion  of  the  khan, 
and  was  cut  in  pieces.  Riazan  was  immediately  taken  by 
assault,  sacked,  and  burned.  All  the  towns  of  the  princi- 
pality suffered  the  same  fate. 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  Grand  Prince,  for  the  Russia  of 
the  northeast  had  not  even  the  honor  of  falling  in  a  great 
battle  like  the  Russia  of  the  southwest,  united  for  once  against 
the  common  enemy.  The  Suzdalian  army,  commanded  by  a 
son  of  luri  the  Second,  was  beaten  on  the  day  of  Kolomna,  on 
the  Oka.  The  Tatars  burned  Moscow,  then  besieged  Vladi- 
mir on  the  Kliazma,  which  luri  the  Second  had  abandoned  to 
seek  for  help  in  the  North.  His  two  sons  were  charged  with 
the  defence  of  the  capital.  Princes  and  boyars,  feeling  there 
was  no  alternative  but  death  or  servitude,  prepared  to  die. 
The  princesses  and  all  the  nobles  prayed  Bishop  Metrophanes 
to  give  them  the  tonsure ;  and  when  the  Tatars  rushed  into 
the  town  by  all  its  gates,  the  vanquished  retired  into  the 
cathedral,  where  they  perished,  men  and  women,  in  a  general 
conflagration.  Suzdal,  Rostof,  laroslavl,  fourteen  towns,  a 
multitude  of  villages  in  the  Grand  Principality,  were  all  given 
over  to  the  flames  in  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-eight.  The 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT   OF   RUSSIA.  155 

Tatars  then  went  to  seek  the  Grand  Prince,  who  was  encamped 
on  the  Sit,  almost  on  the  frontier  of  the  possessions  of  Nov- 
gorod, luri  the  Second  could  neither  avenge  his  people  nor 
his  family.  After  the  battle  the  Bishop  of  Rostof  found  his 
headless  corpse.  His  nephew  Vasilko,  who  was  taken  prisoner, 
was  stabbed  for  refusing  to  serve  Batui.  The  immense  Tatar 
army,  after  having  sacked  Tver,  took  Torjok  ;  there  "  the  Rus- 
sian heads  fell  beneath  the  sword  of  the  Tatars  as  grass  beneath 
the  scythe."  The  territory  of  Novgorod  was  invaded;  the 
great  republic  trembled,  but  the  deep  forests  and  the  swollen 
rivers  delayed  Batui.  The  invading  flood  reached  the  Cross 
of  Ignatius,  about  fifty  miles  from  Novgorod,  then  returned  to 
the  Southeast.  On  the  way  the  small  town  of  Kozelsk,  near 
Kaluga,  checked  the  Tatars  for  so  long,  and  inflicted  on  them 
so  much  loss,  that  it  was  called  by  them  the  wicked  town. 
Its  population  was  exterminated,  and  the  prince,  Vasili,  still  a 
child,  was  "  drowned  in  blood." 

The  two  following  years  were  spent  by  the  Tatars  in  rav- 
aging Southern  Russia.  They  burnt  Pereiaslaf,  and  Tcherni- 
gof,  defended  with  desperation  by  its  princes.  Next  Mangu, 
grandson  of  Genghis  Khan,  marched  against  the  famous  town 
of  Kief,  whose  name  resounded  through  the  East  and  in  the 
books  of  the  Arab  writers.  From  the  left  bank  of  the  Dnieper 
the  barbarian  admired  the  great  city  on  the  heights  of  the 
right  bank,  towering  over  the  wide  river  with  its  white  walls 
and  towers  adorned  by  Byzantine  artists,  and  innumerable 
churches  with  cupolas  of  gold  and  silver.  Mangu  offered  the 
Kievans  terms  of  surrender ;  the  fate  of  Riazan,  of  Tchernigof, 
of  Vladimir,  the  capitals  of  powerful  states,  announced  to  them 
the  lot  that  awaited  them  in  case  of  refusal,  yet  the  Kievans 
dared  to  massacre  the  envoys  of  the  khan.  Mikhail,  their 
Grand  Prince,  fled ;  his  rival,  Daniel  of  Galitch,  did  not  care 
to  remain.  On  hearing  the  report  of  Mangu,  Batui  came  to 
assault  Kief  with  the  bulk  of  his  army.  The  grinding  of  the 
wooden  chariots,  the  bellowings  of  the  buffaloes,  the  cries  of 


156  HISTOKY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

the  camels,  the  neighing  of  the  horses,  the  bowlings  of  the 
Tatars,  rendered  it  impossible,  says  the  annalist,  to  hear  your 
own  voice  in  the  town.  The  Tatars  assailed  the  Polish  Gate, 
and  knocked  down  the  walls  with  a  battering-ram.  "The 
Kievans,  supported  by  the  brave  Dmitri,  a  Gallician  boyar, 
defended  the  fallen  ramparts  till  the  end  of  the  day,  then 
retreated  to  the  Church  of  the  Tithe,  which  they  surrounded 
by  a  palisade.  The  last  defenders  of  Kief  found  themselves 
grouped  around  the  tomb  of  laroslaf.  Next  day  they  perished. 
The  khan  gave  the  boyar  his  life,  but  '  the  Mother  of  Russian 
cities '  was  sacked.  This  third  pillage,  which  took  place  in 
twelve  hundred  and  forty,  was  the  most  terrible.  Even  the 
tombs  were  not  respected.  All  that  remains  of  the  Church  of 
the  Tithe  is  only  a  few  fragments  of  mosaic  in  the  Museum  at 
Kief.  Saint  Sophia  and  the  Monastery  of  the  Catacombs 
were  delivered  up  to  be  plundered." 

Volhynia  and  Gallicia  still  remained,  but  their  princes  could 
not  defend  them,  and  Russia  found  itself,  with  the  exception 
of  Novgorod  and  the  northwest  country,  under  the  Tatar  yoke. 
The  princes  had  fled  or  were  dead ;  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  Russians  were  dragged  into  captivity.  Men  saw  the  wives 
of  boyars,  "  who  had  never  known  work,  who  a  short  time  ago 
had  been  clothed  in  rich  garments,  adorned  with  jewels  and 
collars  of  gold,  surrounded  with  slaves,  now  reduced  to  be 
themselves  the  slaves  of  barbarians  and  their  wives,  turning 
the  wheel  of  the  mill,  and  preparing  their  coarse  food." 

If  we  look  for  the  causes  which  rendered  the  defeat  of  the 
brave  Russian  nation  so  complete,  we  may,  with  Karamsin, 
indicate  the  following :  — 

Though  the  Tatars  were  not  more  advanced,  from  a  military 
point  of  view,  than  the  Russians,  who  had  made  war  in  Greece 
and  in  the  West  against  the  most  warlike  and  civilized  people 
of  Europe,  yet  they  had  an  enormous  superiority  of  numbers. 
Batui  probably  had  with  him  five  hundred  thousand  warriors. 

This  immense  army  moved  like  one  man  ;  it  could  succes- 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT   OF  EUSSIA.  157 

sively  annihilate  the  small  armies  of  the  princes,  or  the  militia 
of  the  towns,  which  presented  themselves  one  at  a  time  to  its 
blows.  The  Tatars  had  found  Russia  divided  against  itself. 

Even  though  Russia  had  wished  to  form  a  confederation, 
the  sudden  irruptions  of  an  army  entirely  composed  of  horse- 
men did  not  leave  it  time. 

In  the  tribes  ruled  by  Batui  every  man  was  a  soldier ;  in 
Russia  the  nobles  and  citizens  alone  bore  arms :  the  peasants, 
who  formed  the  bulk  of  the  population,  allowed  themselves  to 
be  stabbed  or  bound  without  resistance. 

It  was  not  by  a  weak  nation  that  Russia  was  conquered. 
The  Tatar-Mongols,  under  Genghis  Khan,  had  filled  the  East 
with  the  glory  of  their  name,  and  subdued  nearly  all  Asia. 
They  arrived,  proud  of  their  exploits,  animated  by  the  recol- 
lection of  a  hundred  victories,  and  reinforced  by  numerous 
peoples  whom  they  had  vanquished,  and  hurried  with  them  to 
the  West. 

When  the  princes  of  Galitch,  of  Volhynia,  and  of  Kief  ar- 
rived as  fugitives  in  Poland  and  Hungary,  Europe  was  terror- 
stricken.  The  Pope,  whose  support  had  been  claimed  by  the 
Prince  of  Galitch,  summoned  Christendom  to  arms.  Louis 
the  Ninth  prepared  for  a  crusade.  Frederick  the  Second,  as 
Emperor,  wrote  to  the  sovereigns  of  the  West :  "  This  is  the 
moment  to  open  the  eyes  of  body  and  soul,  now  that  the  brave 
princes  on  whom  we  reckoned  are  dead  or  in  slavery."  The 
Tatars  invaded  Hungary,  gave  battle  to  the  Poles  in  Liegnitz 
in  Silesia,  had  their  progress  a  long  while  arrested  by  the  cour- 
ageous defence  of  Olmiitz  in  Moravia,  by  the  Tchek  voievod, 
laroslaf,  and  stopped  finally,  learning  that  a  large  army,  com- 
manded by  the  King  of  Bohemia  and  the  dukes  of  Austria  and 
Karinthia,  was  approaching.  The  news  of  the  death  of  Okta'i, 
second  emperor  of  all  the  Tatars,  in  China,  recalled  Batui  from 
the  West,  and  during  the  long  march  from  Germany  his  army 
necessarily  diminished  in  number.  The  Tatars  were  no  longer 
in  the  vast  plains  of  Asia  and  Eastern  Europe,  but  in  a  broken 


158  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

hilly  country,  bristling  with  fortresses,  defended  by  a  popula- 
tion more  dense  and  a  chivalry  more  numerous  than  those  in 
Russia.  To  sum  up,  all  the  fury  of  the  Mongol  tempest  spent 
itself  on  the  Slavonic  race.  It  was  the  Russians  who  fought 
at  the  Kalka,  at  Kolomna,  at  the  Sit ;  the  Poles  and  Silesians 
at  Liegnitz ;  the  Bohemians  and  Moravians  at  Olmiitz.  The 
Germans  suffered  nothing  from  the  invasion  of  the  Mongols 
but  the  fear  of  it.  It  exhausted  itself  principally  on  those 
plains  of  Russia  which  seem  a  continuation  of  the  steppes  of 
Asia.  Only  in  Russian  history  did  the  invasion  produce  great 
results.  About  the  same  time  Batui  built  on  one  of  the  arms 
of  the  Lower  Volga  a  city  called  Sarai,  or  the  Castle,  which 
became  the  capital  of  a  powerful  Tatar  Empire,  the  Golden 
Horde,  extending  from  the  Ural  and  Caspian  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Danube.  The  Golden  Horde  was  formed  not  only  of 
Tatar-Mongols,  or  Nogais,  who  even  now  survive  in  the  North- 
ern Crimea,  but  particularly  of  the  remains  of  ancient  nomads, 
such  as  the  Petchenegi  and  Polovtsui,  whose  descendants  seem 
to  be  the  present  Kalmucks  and  Bashkirs ;  of  Turkish  tribes 
tending  to  become  sedentary,  like  the  Tatars  of  Astrakhan  in 
the  present  day ;  and  of  the  Finnish  populations  already  estab- 
lished in  the  country,  and  which  mixed  with  the  invaders. 
Okta'i,  Kui'uk,  and  Mangu,  the  first  three  successors  of  Genghis 
Khan,  elected  by  all  the  Mongol  princes,  took  the  title  of 
Great  Khans,  and  the  Golden  Horde  recognized  their  author- 
ity; but  under  his  fourth  successor,  Khubulai,  who  usurped 
the  throne  and  established  himself  in  China,  this  bond  of 
vassalage  was  broken.  The  Golden  Horde  became  an  in- 
dependent state  in  twelve  hundred  and  sixty.  United  and 
powerful  under  the  terrible  Batui,  who  died  in  twelve  hundred 
and  fifty-five,  it  fell  to  pieces  under  his  successors ;  but  in  the 
fourteenth  century  the  Khan  Uzbek  reunited  it  anew,  and  gave 
the  Horde  a  second  period  of  prosperity.  The  Tatars,  who 
were  pagans  when  they  entered  Russia,  embraced  the  faith  of 
Islam  about  twelve  hundred  and  severity-two,  and  became  its 
most  formidable  apostles. 


ALEXANDER  NEVSKI 


1252-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT   OF   RUSSIA.  159 

ALEXANDER  NEVSKI. 

laroslaf,  after  his  defeat  at  Lipetsk,  entered  Suzdal  on  the 
tragic  death  of  his  brother,  the  Grand  Prince  luri  the  Second, 
in  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-eight,  and  found  his  inheritance 
in  the  most  deplorable  condition.  The  towns  and  villages  were 
burnt,  the  country  and  roads  covered  with  unburied  corpses  ; 
the  survivors  were  hiding  in  the  woods.  He  recalled  the  fugi- 
tives and  began  to  rebuild.  Batui,  who  had  completed  the 
devastation  of  South  Russia,  summoned  laroslaf  to  do  him 
homage  at  Sara'i,  on  the  Volga.  laroslaf  was  received  there 
with  distinction.  Batui  confirmed  his  title  of  Grand  Prince, 
but  invited  him  to  go  in  person  to  the  Great  Khan,  supreme 
chief  of  the  Mongol  nation,  who  lived  on  the  banks  of  the 
river  Sakhalian,  or  Amur.  To  do  this  was  to  cross  the  whole 
of  Russia  and  Asia.  laroslaf  bent  his  knees  to  the  new  mas- 
ter of  the  world,  Oktai,  succeeded  in  refuting  the  accusations 
brought  against  him  by  a  Russian  boyar,  and  obtained  a  new 
confirmation  of  his  title.  On  his  return,  in  twelve  hundred 
and  forty-six,  he  died  in  the  desert  of  exhaustion,  and  his 
faithful  servants  brought  his  body  back  to  Vladimir.  His 
son  Andrei  succeeded  him  in  Suzdal,  and  ruled  until  twelve 
hundred  and  fifty-two.  His  other  son,  Alexander,  reigned 
at  Novgorod  the  Great. 

Alexander  was  as  brave  as  he  was  intelligent.  He  was 
the  hero  of  the  North,  and  yet  he  forced  himself  to  accept 
the  necessary  humiliations  of  his  terrible  situation.  In  his 
youth  we  see  him  fighting  with  all  the  enemies  of  Novgorod, 
Livonian  knights  and  Tchudi,  Swedes  and  Finns.  The  Nov- 
gorodians  found  themselves  at  issue  with  the  Scandinavians 
on  the  subject  of  their  possessions  on  the  Neva  and  the  Gulf 
of  Finland.  As  they  had  helped  the  natives  to  resist  the 
Latin  faith,  King  John  obtained  the  promise  of  Gregory  the 
Ninth  that  a  crusade,  with  plenary  indulgences,  should  be 
preached  against  the  Great  Republic  and  its  proteges,  the 


160  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

pagans  of  the  Baltic.  His  son-in-law,  Birger,  with  an  army  of 
Scandinavians,  Finns,  and  Western  Crusaders,  took  the  com- 
mand of  the  forces,  and  sent  word  to  the  Prince  of  Novgorod, 
"  Defend  yourself  if  you  can :  know  that  I  am  already  in 
your  provinces."  The  Russians  on  their  side,  feeling  they 
were  fighting  for  orthodoxy,  opposed  the  Latin  crusade  with 
a  Greek  one.  Alexander  humbled  himself  in  Saint  Sophia, 
received  the  benediction  of  the  Archbishop  Spiridion,  and 
addressed  an  energetic  harangue  to  his  warriors.  He  had  no 
time  to  await  reinforcements  from  Suzdal.  He  attacked  the 
Swedish  camp,  which  was  situated  on  the  Ijora,  one  of  the 
southern  affluents  of  the  Neva,  which  has  given  its  name  to 
Ingria.  Alexander  won  a  brilliant  victory,  which  gained  him 
his  surname  of  Nevski,  and  the  honor  of  becoming  one  of  the 
patrons  of  Saint  Petersburg  under  Peter  the  Great,  the  second 
conqueror  of  the  Swedes.  By  the  orders  of  his  great  succes- 
sor, his  bones  repose  in  the  Monastery  of  Alexander  Nevski. 
The  battle  of  the  Neva  was  preserved  in  a  dramatic  legend. 
An  Ingrian  chief  told  Alexander  how,  on  the  eve  of  the  com- 
bat, he  had  seen  a  mysterious  barque,  manned  by  two  warriors 
with  shining  brows,  glide  through  the  night.  They  were  Boris 
and  Gleb,  who  came  to  the  rescue  of  their  young  kinsman. 
Other  accounts  have  preserved  to  us  the  individual  exploits 
of  the  Russian  heroes,  —  Gabriel,  Skuilaf  of  Novgorod,  James 
of  Polotsk,  Sabas,  who  threw  down  the  tent  of  Birger,  and 
Alexander  Nevski  himself,  who  with  a  stroke  of  the  lance 
"  imprinted  his  seal  on  his  face."  Notwithstanding  the  tri- 
umph of  such  a  service,  Alexander  and  the  Novgorodians 
could  not  agree ;  a  short  time  after  he  retired  to  Pereiaslavl- 
Zalieski.  The  proud  republicans  soon  had  reason  to  regret 
the  exile  of  this  second  Camillus.  The  Order  of  the  Sword- 
bearers,  the  indefatigable  enemy  of  orthodoxy,  took  Pskof, 
their  ally ;  the  Germans  imposed  tribute  on  the  Vojane*,  vas- 
sals of  Novgorod,  constructed  the  fortress  of  Koporie  on  the 
territory  of  the  Neva,  took  the  Russian  town  of  Tessof  in 


1252-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  RUSSIA.  161 

Esthonia,  and  pillaged  the  merchants  of  Novgorod  within 
seventeen  miles  of  their  ramparts.  During  this  time  the 
Tchudi  and  the  Lithuanians  captured  the  peasants,  and  the 
cattle  of  the  citizens.  At  last  Alexander  allowed  himself  to 
be  touched  by  the  prayers  of  the  archbishop  and  the  people, 
assembled  an  army,  expelled  the  Germans  from  Koporie,  and 
next  from  Pskof,  hung  as  traitors  the  captive  Vojane  and 
Tchudi,  and  put  to  death  six  knights  who  fell  into  his  hands. 
This  war  between  the  two  races  and  two  religions  was  cruel 
and  pitiless.  The  law  of  nations  was  hardly  recognized. 
More  than  once  Germans  and  Russians  slew  the  ambassadors 
of  the  other  side.  Alexander  Nevski  finally  gave  battle  to 
the  Livonian  knights  on  the  ice  of  Lake  Peipus,  killed  four 
hundred  of  them,  took  fifty  prisoners,  and  exterminated  a 
multitude  of  Tchudi.  Such  was  the  Battle  of  the  Ice,  which 
took  place  in  twelve  hundred  and  forty-two.  He  returned  in 
triumph  to  Novgorod,  dragging  with  him  his  prisoners  loaded 
with  irons.  The  Grand  Master  expected  to  see  Alexander 
at  the  gates  of  Riga,  and  implored  help  of  Denmark.  The 
Prince  of  Novgorod,  satisfied  with  having  delivered  Pskof, 
concluded  peace,  recovered  certain  districts,  and  consented  to 
the  exchange  of  prisoners.  At  this  time  Innocent  the  Fourth, 
deceived  by  false  information,  addressed  a  bull  to  Alexander, 
as  a  devoted  son  of  the  Church,  assuring  him  that  his  father 
laroslaf,  while  dying  among  the  Horde,  had  desired  to  submit 
himself  to  the  throne  of  Saint  Peter.  Two  cardinals  brought 
him  this  letter  from  the  Pope  in  twelve  hundred  and  fifty- 
one. 

It  is  this  hero  of  the  Neva  and  Lake  Peipus,  this  van- 
quisher of  the  Scandinavians  and  Livonian  knights,  that  we 
are  presently  to  see  grovelling  at  the  feet  of  a  barbarian. 
Alexander  Nevski  perceived  that,  in  presence  of  this  immense 
and  brutal  force  of  the  Mongols,  all  resistance  was  madness, 
all  pride  ruin.  To  brave  them  was  to  complete  the  overthrow 
of  Russia.  His  conduct  may  not  have  been  chivalrous,  but  it 

VOL.  I.  11 


162  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

was  wise  and  humane.  Alexander  disdained  to  play  the 
hero  at  the  expense  of  his  people,  like  his  brother  Andrei 
of  Suzdal,  who  was  immediately  obliged  to  fly,  abandoning 
his  country  to  the  vengeance  of  the  Tatars.  The  Prince  of 
Novgorod  was  the  only  prince  in  Russia  who  had  kept  his 
independence,  but  he  knew  Batui's  hands  could  extend  as  far 
as  the  Ilmen.  "  God  has  subjected  many  peoples  to  me," 
wrote  the  barbarian  to  him  :  "  will  you  alone  refuse  to  recog- 
nize my  power?  If  you  wish  to  keep  your  land,  come  to  me; 
you  will  see  the  splendor  and  the  glory  of  my  sway."  Then 
Alexander  went  to  Sarai  with  his  brother  Andrei,  who  was 
disputing  the  Grand  Principality  of  Vladimir  with  his  uncle, 
Sviatoslaf.  Batui  declared  that  fame  had  not  exaggerated 
the  merit  of  Alexander,  that  he  far  excelled  the  common  run 
of  Russian  princes.  He  enjoined  the  two  brothers  to  show 
themselves,  like  their  father  laroslaf,  at  the  Great  Horde ; 
they  returned  from  it  in  twelve  hundred  and  fifty-seven. 
Kuiuk  had  confirmed  the  one  in  the  possession  of  Vladimir, 
and  the  other  in  that  of  Novgorod,  adding  to  it  all  South 
Russia  and  Kief. 

The  year  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  put  Alexander's  pa- 
tience and  his  politic  obedience  to  the  Tatars  to  the  proof. 
Ulavtchi,  to  whom  the  Khan  Berkai  had  confided  the  affairs 
of  Russia,  demanded  that  Novgorod  should  submit  to  the 
census  and  pay  tribute.  It  was  the  hero  of  the  Neva  who 
was  charged  with  the  humiliating  and  dangerous  mission  of 
persuading  Novgorod.  When  the  posadnik  expressed  in  the 
vetche  the  opinion  that  it  was  necessary  to  submit  to  the 
strongest,  the  people  raised  a  terrible  cry  and  murdered  him. 
Vasili  himself,  Alexander's  son,  declared  against  a  father  "  who 
brought  servitude  to  free  men,"  and  retired  to  the  Pskovians. 
It  needed  a  soul  of  iron  temper  to  resist  the  universal  disap- 
probation, and  counsel  the  Novgorodians  to  the  commission 
of  the  cowardly  though  necessary  act.  Alexander  arrested 
his  son,  and  punished  with  death  or  mutilation  the  boyars 


1252-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT  OF  KUSSIA.  163 

who  had  led  him  into  the  revolt.  The  vetche  decided  to 
refuse  the  tribute,  and  sent  back  the  Mongol  ambassadors 
with  presents.  However,  on  the  rumor  of  the  approach  of 
the  Tatars,  they  repented,  and  Alexander  could  announce  to 
the  enemy  that  Novgorod  submitted  to  the  census.  But 
when  they  saw  the  officers  of  the  khan  at  work,  the  popula- 
tion revolted  again,  and  the  prince  was  obliged  to  keep  guard 
on  the  officers  night  and  day.  In  vain  the  boyars  advised 
the  citizens  to  give  in  :  assembled  around  Saint  Sophia,  the 
people  declared  they  would  die  for  liberty  and  honor.  Alex- 
ander then  threatened  to  quit  the  city  with  his  men,  and 
abandon  it  to  the  vengeance  of  the  khan.  This  menace 
conquered  the  pride  of  the  Novgorodians.  The  Mongols  and 
their  agents  were  allowed  to  go,  register  in  hand,  from  house 
to  house  in  the  humiliated  and  silent  city  to  make  the  list 
of  the  inhabitants.  "  The  boyars,"  says  Karamsin,  "  might 
still  be  vain  of  their  rank  and  their  riches,  but  the  simple 
citizens  had  lost  with  their  national  honor  their  most  precious 
possession." 

In  Suzdal  also  Alexander  found  himself  in  the  presence  of 
insolent  victors  and  exasperated  subjects.  In  twelve  hundred 
and  sixty-two  the  inhabitants  of  Vladimir,  of  Suzdal,  and  of 
Rostof  rose  against  the  collectors  of  the  Tatar  impost.  The 
people  of  laroslavl  slew  a  renegade  named  Zozim,  a  former 
monk,  who  had  become  a  Moslem  fanatic.  Terrible  reprisals 
were  sure  to  follow.  Alexander  set  out  with  presents  for  the 
Horde  at  the  risk  of  leaving  his  head  there.  He  had  likewise 
to  excuse  himself  for  having  refused  the  Mongols  a  body  of 
auxiliary  Russians,  wishing  at  least  to  spare  the  blood  and 
religious  scruples  of  his  subjects.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that, 
over  the  most  profound  humiliations  of  the  Russian  nationality, 
the  contemporary  history  always  throws  a  ray  of  glory.  At 
the  moment  that  Alexander  went  to  prostrate  himself  at  Sarai, 
the  Suzdalian  army,  united  to  that  of  Novgorod,  and  com- 
manded by  his  son  Dmitri,  defeated  the  Livonian  knights, 


164  HISTOEY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

and  took  Dorpat  by  assault.  The  Khan  BerkaT  gave  Alex- 
ander a  kind  greeting,  accepted  his  explanations,  dispensed 
with  the  promised  contingent,  but  kept  him  for  a  year  near 
his  court.  Alexander's  health  broke  down ;  on  his  return  he 
died  before  reaching  Vladimir.  When  the  news  arrived  at 
his  capital,  the  Metropolitan  Kirill,  who  was  finishing  the 
liturgy,  turned  towards  the  faithful,  and  said :  "  Learn,  my 
dear  children,  that  the  Sun  of  Russia  is  set."  "  We  are  lost," 
cried  the  people,  breaking  forth  into  sobs.  Alexander  by 
this  policy  of  resignation,  which  his  chivalrous  heroism  does 
not  permit  us  to  despise,  had  secured  some  repose  for  exhausted 
Russia.  By  his  victories  over  his  enemies  of  the  West  he  had 
given  it  some  glory,  and  hindered  it  from  despairing  under 
the  most  crushing  tyranny,  material  and  moral,  which  a  Euro- 
pean people  had  ever  suffered. 


THE  MONGOL  YOKE.  —  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TATARS  ON 
RUSSIAN  DEVELOPMENT. 

The  Mongol  khans,  after  having  devastated  and  abased 
Russia,  did  not  introduce  any  direct  political  change.  They 
left  to  each  country  its  laws,  its  courts  of  justice,  its  natural 
chiefs.  The  house  of  Andrei  Bogoliubski  continued  to  reign 
in  Suzdal,  that  of  Daniel  Romanovitch  in  Galitch  and  Vol- 
hynia,  the  Olgovitchi  in  Tchernigof,  and  the  descendants  of 
Rogvolod  the  Variag  at  Polotsk.  Novgorod  might  continue 
to  expel  and  recall  its  princes,  and  the  dynasties  of  the 
south  to  dispute  the  throne  of  Kief.  The  Russian  states 
found  themselves  under  the  Mongol  yoke,  in  much  the  same 
situation  as  that  of  the  Christians  of  the  Greco-Slav  peninsula 
three  centuries  later,  under  the  Ottomans.  The  Russians 
remained  in  possession  of  all  their  lands,  which  their  nomad 
conquerors,  encamped  on  the  steppes  of  the  East  and  South, 
disdained.  They  were,  like  their  Danubian  kinsmen,  a  sort 
of  rayahs,  over  whom  the  authority  of  the  khans  was  exerted 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT  OF   EUSSIA.  165 

with  more  or  less  rigor,  but  whom  their  conquerors  never  tried 
in  any  way  to  Tatarize.  Let  us  see  exactly  in  what  consisted 
the  obligations  of  the  vanquished,  and  their  relations  with 
their  conquerors,  during  the  period  of  the  Mongol  yoke. 

The  Russian  princes  were  forced  to  visit  the  Horde,  either  as 
evidence  of  their  submission,  or  to  give  the  khan  opportunity 
of  judging  their  disputes.  We  have  seen  how  they  had  to  go, 
not  only  to  the  khan  of  the  Golden  Horde,  but  often  also  to 
the  Grand  Khan  at  the  extremity  of  Asia,  on  the  borders  of  the 
Sakhalian,  or  Amur.  They  met  there  the  chiefs  of  the  Mongol, 
Tatar,  Thibetan,  and  Bokharian  hordes,  and  sometimes  the 
ambassador  of  the  Caliph  of  Bagdad,  of  the  Pope,  or  of  the 
King  of  France.  The  Grand  Khans  tried  to  play  off  against 
each  other  these  ambassadors,  who  were  astounded  to  meet  at 
his  Court.  Mangu  Khan  desired  Saint  Louis  to  recognize  him 
as  the  master  of  the  world,  "  for,"  said  he,  "  when  the  universe 
has  saluted  me  as  sovereign,  a  happy  tranquillity  will  reign  on 
the  earth."  In  the  case  of  refusal,  "  neither  deep  seas  nor  in- 
accessible mountains  "  would  place  the  King  of  France  beyond 
the  power  of  his  wrath.  To  the  princes  of  Asia  and  Russia 
he  displayed  the  presents  of  the  King  of  France,  affecting  to 
consider  them  as  tributes  and  signs  of  submission.  "We  will 
send  for  him  to  confound  you,"  he  said  to  them,  and  Joinville 
assures  us  that  this  threat,  and  "  the  fear  of  the  King  of 
France,"  decided  many  to  throw  themselves  on  his  mercy. 
This  journey  to  the  Grand  Horde  was  terrible.  The  road  went 
through  deserts,  or  countries  once  rich,  but  changed  by  the 
Tatars  into  vast  wastes.  Few  who  went  returned.  Planus  Car- 
pinus,  envoy  of  Innocent  the  Fourth,  saw  in  the  steppes  of  the 
Kirghiz  the  dry  bones  of  the  boyars  of  the  unhappy  laroslaf, 
who  had  died  of  thirst  in  the  sand.  Planus  Carpinus  thus  de- 
scribes the  Batui's  Court  on  the  Volga :  "  It  is  crowded  and 
brilliant.  His  army  consists  of  six  hundred  thousand  men,  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  whom  are  Tatars,  and  four  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  strangers,  Christians  as  well  as  infidels. 


166  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

On  Good  Friday  we  were  conducted  to  his  tent,  between  two 
fires,  because  the  Tatars  pretend  that  a  fire  purifies  everything, 
and  robs  even  poison  of  its  danger.  We  had  to  make  many 
prostrations,  and  enter  the  tent  without  touching  the  threshold. 
Batui  was  on  his  throne  with  one  of  his  wives ;  his  brothers, 
his  children,  and  the  Tatar  lords  were  seated  on  benches ;  the 
rest  of  the  assembly  were  on  the  ground,  the  men  on  the  right, 

the  women  on  the  left The  khan  and  the  lords  of  the 

Court  emptied  from  time  to  time  cups  of  gold  and  silver, 
while  the  musicians  made  the  air  ring  with  their  melodies. 
Batui  has  a  bright  complexion  ;  he  is  affable  with  his  men,  but 
inspires  general  terror."  The  Court  of  the  Grand  Khan  was 
still  more  magnificent.  Planus  Carpinus  found  there  a  Russian 
named  Kum,  who  was  the  favorite  and  special  goldsmith  of 
Gaiuk  or  Ku'iuk,  and  Rubruquis  discovered  a  Parisian  gold- 
smith, named  Guillaume.  Much  money  was  needed  for  success 
either  at  the  Court  of  the  Grand  Khan  or  of  Batui.  Presents 
had  to  be  distributed  to  the  Tatar  princes,  to  the  favorites ; 
above  all,  to  the  wives  and  the  mother  of  the  khan.  At  this 
terrible  tribunal  the  Russian  princes  had  to  struggle  with  in- 
trigues and  corruption  ;  the  heads  of  the  pleaders  were  often 
the  stakes  of  these  dreadful  trials.  The  most  dangerous  ene- 
mies they  encountered  at  the  Tatar  Court  were  not  the  barba- 
rians, but  the  Russians,  their  rivals.  The  history  of  the  Russian 
princes  at  the  Horde  is  very  tragic.  Thus  Mikhail  of  Tcher- 
nigof  perished  at  the  Horde  of  Sarai  in  twelve  hundred  and 
forty-six,  and  Mikhail  of  Tver  in  thirteen  hundred  and  nine- 
teen, the  one  assassinated  by  the  renegade  Doman,  the  other 
by  the  renegade  Romanets,  at  the  instigation  and  under  the 
eyes  of  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow. 

The  conquered  people  were  obliged  to  pay  a  capitation  tax, 
which  weighed  as  heavily  on  the  poor  as  on  the  rich.  The 
tribute  was  paid  either  in  money  or  in  furs ;  those  who  were 
unable  to  furnish  it  became  slaves.  The  khans  had  for  some 
time  farmed  out  this  revenue  to  some  Khiva  merchants,  who 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT  OF   RUSSIA.  1C7 

collected  it  with  the  utmost  rigor,  and  whom,  they  protected  by 
appointing  superior  agents  called  baskaki,  with  strong  guards 
to  support  them.  The  excesses  of  these  tax-gatherers  excited 
many  revolts  :  in  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-two,  that  of  Suzdal ; 
in  twelve  hundred  and  eighty-four,  that  of  Kursk ;  in  thirteen 
hundred  and  eighteen,  that  of  Kolomna  ;  in  thirteen  hundred 
and  twenty-seven,  that  of  Tver,  where  the  inhabitants  slew  the 
baskak  Shevkal,  and  brought  upon  themselves  frightful  re- 
prisals. Later,  the  princes  of  Moscow  themselves  farmed  not 
only  the  tax  from  their  own  subjects,  but  also  from  neighbor- 
ing countries.  They  became  the  farmers-general  of  the  in- 
vaders. This  was  the  origin  of  their  riches  and  their  power. 

Besides  the  tribute,  the  Russians  had  to  furnish  to  their 
master  the  blood-tax,  a  military  contingent.  Already  at  the 
time  of  the  Huns  and  Avars,  we  have  seen  Slavs  and  Goths 
accompanying  the  Asiatic  hordes,  forming  their  vanguards, 
and  being  as  it  were  the  hounds  of  Bai'an.  In  the  thirteenth 
century  the  Russian  princes  furnished  to  the  Tatars  select 
troops,  especially  a  solid  infantry,  and  marched  in  their  armies 
each  at  the  head  of  his  drujina.  It  was  thus  that  in  twelve 
hundred  and  seventy-six  Boris  of  Rostof,  Gleb  of  Bielozersk, 
Feodor  of  laroslavl,  and  Andrei  of  Gorodets  followed  Mangu 
Khan  in  a  war  against  the  tribes  of  the  Caucasus,  and  sacked 
Dediakof  in  Daghestan,  the  capital  of  the  lasui.  The  Mongols 
scrupulously  reserved  to  them  their  part  of  the  booty.  The 
same  Russian  princes  took  part  in  an  expedition  against  an 
adventurer  named  Lachan  by  the  Greek  historians,  formerly  a 
keeper  of  pigs,  who  had  raised  Bulgaria.  The  descendants  of 
Monomakh  behaved  still  more  dishonorably  in  the  troubles  in 
the  interior  of  Russia.  They  excited  the  Mongols  against 
their  countrymen  and  aided  the  invaders.  Prince  Andrei,  son 
of  Alexander  Nevski,  in  twelve  hundred  and  eighty-one,  in 
concert  with  the  Tatars,  pillaged  the  provinces  of  Vladimir, 
Suzdal,  Murom,  Moscow,  and  Pereiaslavl,  which  he  was  dis- 
puting with  Dmitri,  his  elder  brother.  He  helped  the  bar- 


168  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

barians  to  profane  churches  and  convents.  In  thirteen  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  it  was  the  princes  of  Moscow  and  Suzdal 
who  directed  the  military  execution  against  Tver.  In  twelve 
hundred  and  eighty-four  two  Olgovitchi  reigned  in  the  land 
of  Kursk ;  one  of  them,  Oleg,  put  the  other  to  death  in  the 
name  of  the  khan.  Servitude  had  so  much  abased  all  charac- 
ters, that  even  the  annalists  share  the  general  degradation. 
They  blame,  not  Oleg  the  murderer,  but  Sviatoslaf  the  victim. 
Was  it  not  his  unbridled  conduct  that  caused  the  anger  of  the 
khan? 

No  prince  could  ascend  the  throne  without  having  received 
the  investiture  and  the  iarluik,  or  letters-patent,  from  the 
khan.  The  proud  Novgorodians  themselves  rejected  Mikhail, 
their  prince,  saying,  "  It  is  true  we  have  chosen  Mikhail,  but 
on  the  condition  that  he  should  show  us  the  iarluik." 

No  Russian  state  dared  to  make  war  without  being  author- 
ized by  the  khan.  In  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-nine  the 
Novgorodians  asked  leave  to  march  against  Revel.  In  thir- 
teen hundred  and  three,  in  an  assembly  of  princes,  and  in 
the  presence  of  the  Metropolitan  Maxirnus,  a  decree  of  the 
Khan  Tokhta  was  read,  enjoining  the  princes  to  put  an  end 
to  their  dissensions,  and  to  content  themselves  with  their 
appanages,  it  being  the  will  of  the  Grand  Khan  that  the 
Grand  Principality  should  enjoy  peace.  When  the  Mongol 
ambassadors  brought  a  letter  from  their  sovereign,  the  Rus- 
sian princes  were  obliged  to  meet  them  on  foot,  prostrate 
themselves,  spread  precious  carpets  under  their  feet,  present 
them  with  a  cup  filled  with  gold  pieces,  and  listen,  kneeling, 
while  the  iarluik  was  read. 

Even  while  the  Tatars  conquered  the  Russians,  they  re- 
spected their  bravery.  Matrimonial  alliances  were  contracted 
between  their  princes.  About  twelve  hundred  and  seventy- 
two  Gleb,  Prince  of  Bielozersk,  took  a  wife  out  of  the  khan's 
family,  which  already  professed  Christianity,  and  Feodor  of 
Riazan  became  the  son-in-law  of  the  khan  of  the  Nogai's,  who 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT  OP   RUSSIA.  169 

assigned  to  the  young  couple  a  palace  in  Sarai.  In  thirteen 
hundred  and  eighteen  the  Grand  Prince  luri  married  a  sister 
of  Uzbek  Khan,  Kontchaka,  who  was  baptized  by  the  name 
of  Agatha.  Towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  the 
Tatars  were  no  longer  the  rude  shepherds  of  the  steppes. 
Mingled  with  sedentary  and  more  cultivated  races,  they  re- 
built fresh  cities  on  the  ruins  of  those  they  had  destroyed : 
Kruim  in  the  Crimea,  Kazan,  Astrakhan,  and  Sarai.  They 
had  acquired  a  taste  for  luxury  and  magnificence,  honored  the 
national  poets  who  sang  their  exploits,  piqued  themselves  on 
their  chivalry  and  even  on  their  gallantry.  Notwithstanding 
the  difference  of  religion,  a  reconciliation  was  taking  place 
between  the  aristocracy  of  the  two  countries,  between  the 
Russian  and  the  Tatar  princes. 

The  Russian  historians  are  not  entirely  agreed  as  to  the 
nature  and  degree  of  influence  exerted  by  the  Mongol  yoke 
on  the  Russian  development.  Karamsin  and  M.  Kostomarof 
believe  it  to  have  been  considerable.  "  Perhaps,"  says  the 
former,  "  our  national  character  still  presents  some  blots 
which  are  derived  from  the  Mongol  barbarism."  M.  Solo- 
viof,  on  the  contrary,  affirms  that  the  Tatars  hardly  influenced 
it  more  than  the  Petchenegi  or  Polovtsui.  M.  Bestujef- 
Riumin  estimates  the  influence  to  have  been  specially  exerted 
on  the  financial  administration  and  military  organization. 
On  one  side  the  Tatars  established  the  capitation-tax,  which 
has  remained  in  the  financial  system  of  Russia  ;  on  the  other, 
the  conquered  race  had  a  natural  tendency  to  adopt  the  mili- 
tary system  of  the  victors.  The  Russian  or  Mongol  princes 
formed  a  caste  of  soldiers  henceforth  quite  distinct  from 
Western  chivalry,  to  which  the  Russian  heroes  of  the  twelfth 
century  belonged.  The  warriors  of  Daniel  of  Galitch,  it  is 
said,  astounded  the  Poles  and  Hungarians  by  the  Oriental 
character  of  their  equipment.  Short  stirrups,  very  high  sad- 
dles, a  long  caftan,  or  floating  dress,  a  sort  of  turban  sur- 
mounted by  an  aigret,  sabres  and  poniards  in  their  belts,  a 


170  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

bow  and  arrows,  —  such  was  the  military  costume  of  a  Rus- 
sian prince  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

On  the  other  side,  many  of  the  peculiarities  in  which  the 
Mongol  influence  is  thought  traceable  may  be  attributed  as 
well  or  better  to  purely  Slav  traditions,  or  imitations  of  Byzan- 
tine manners.  If  the  Muscovite  princes  inclined  to  autocracy, 
it  was  not  that  they  formed  themselves  on  the  model  of  the 
Grand  Khans,  but  that  they  naturally  adopted  imperial  ideas 
of  absolutism  imported  from  Constantinople.  It  is  always 
the  Roman  Emperor  of  Tsargrad,  and  not  the  leader  of 
Asiatic  shepherds,  who  is  their  typical  monarch.  If  from 
this  time  the  Russian  penal  law  makes  more  frequent  use  of 
the  pain  of  death  and  corporal  punishment,  it  is  not  only  the 
result  of  imitation  of  the  Tatars,  but  of  the  ever-growing 
influence  of  Byzantine  laws,  and  the  progressive  triumph  of 
their  principles  over  those  of  the  ancient  Code  of  laroslaf. 
Now  these  laws  so  very  easily  admitted  torture,  flogging, 
mutilation,  and  the  stake,  that  there  is  no  need  to  explain 
anything  by  Mongol  usages.  The  habit  of  prostration,  of 
beating  the  forehead,  of  affecting  a  servile  submission,  is  cer- 
tainly Oriental,  but  it  is  also  Byzantine.  The  seclusion  of 
women  was  common  in  ancient  Russia,  the  customs  of  which 
were  moulded  by  Greek  missionaries,  and  the  Russian  terem 
was  derived  from  the  Hellenic  plan  of  women's  quarters, 
rather  than  from  the  Oriental  harem ;  all  the  more  because 
the  Tatar  women,  before  the  conversion  of  the  Mongols  to 
Islamism,  do  not  appear  to  have  been  secluded.  If  the  Rus- 
sians of  the  seventeenth  century  seem  strange  to  us  in  their 
long  robes  and  Oriental  fashions,  we  must  remember  that  the 
French  and  Italians  of  the  fifteenth  century,  dressed  by  Vene- 
tian merchants,  displayed  the  same  taste.  But  in  France 
fashions  made  advances,  while  in  Russia,  isolated  from  the 
rest  of  Europe,  they  remained  stationary. 

From  a  social  point  of  view,  two  Russian  expressions  seem 
to  date  from  the  Tatar  invasion  :  tchernui,  or  the  black  people, 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT   OF  RUSSIA.  171 

to  designate  the  lower  orders  ;  and  krestianin,  signifying  the 
peasant,  that  is,  the  typical  Christian,  who  was  always  a 
stranger  to  the  Mongol  customs  adopted  for  a  short  time  by 
the  aristocracy.  As  to  the  amount  of  Mongol  or  Tatar  blood 
mixed  with  the  blood  of  the  Russians,  it  must  have  been  very 
small :  the  aristocracy  of  the  two  countries  may  have  con- 
tracted marriages,  a  certain  number  of  Tatar  princes  may 
have  become  Russian  princes  by  their  conversion  to  ortho- 
doxy, but  the  two  races,  as  a  whole,  remained  strangers. 
Even  to-day,  while  the  native  Finns  continue  to  be  Russified, 
the  Tatar  cantons,  even  though  converted  to  Christianity,  are 
still  Tatar. 

If  the  Mongol  yoke  influenced  Russian  development,  it  is 
very  indirectly.  By  separating  Russia  from  the  West,  by 
making  it  a  political  dependency  of  Asia,  it  perpetuated  in 
the  country  that  Byzantine  half-civilization  whose  inferior- 
ity to  European  civilization  became  daily  more  obvious.  If 
the  Russians  of  the  seventeenth  century  differ  so  much  from 
Western  nations,  it  is  above  all  because  they  have  remained 
at  the  point  whence  all  set  out.  Again,  the  Tatar  conquest 
also  favored  indirectly  the  establishment  of  absolute  power. 
The  Muscovite  princes,  responsible  to  the  khan  for  the  public 
tranquillity  and  the  collection  of  the  tax,  being  all  the  while 
watched  and  supported  by  the  baskaki,  could  the  more  easily 
annihilate  the  independence  of  the  towns,  the  resistance  of 
the  subordinate  princes,  the  turbulence  of  the  boyars,  and  the 
privileges  of  the  free  peasants.  The  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow 
had  110  consideration  for  his  subjects  because  no  man  had 
any  consideration  for  him,  and  because  his  life  was  always 
at  stake.  The  Mongol  tyranny  bore  with  a  terrible  weight 
on  all  the  Russian  hierarchy,  and  subjected  more  closely  the 
nobles  to  the  princes  and  the  peasants  to  the  nobles.  "  The 
princes  of  Moscow,"  says  Karamsin,  "  took  the  humble  title  of 
servants  of  the  khans,  and  it  was  by  this  means  that  they 
became  powerful  monarchs."  No  doubt  under  any  circum- 


172  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  X. 

stances  the  Russian  principalities  would  have  ended  by  losing 
themselves  in  the  same  dominion,  but  Russian  unity  would 
have  been  made,  like  French  unity,  without  the  entire  destruc- 
tion of  local  autonomies,  the  privileges  of  the  towns,  and  the 
rights  of  the  subjects.  It  was  the  crushing  weight  of  the 
Mongol  domination  that  stifled  all  the  germs  of  political  lib- 
erty. We  may  say,  with  Mr.  Wallace,  that  "  the  first  Tsars 
of  Muscovy  were  the  political  descendants,  not  of  the  Russian 
princes,  but  of  the  Tatar  khans."  A  third  indirect  result  of 
the  conquest  was  the  growth  of  the  power  and  riches  of  the 
Church.  In  spite  of  the  saintly  legends  about  the  martyrdom 
of  certain  princes,  the  Tatars  were  a  tolerant  nation.  Rubru- 
quis  saw  in  the  presence  of  the  Grand  Khan  Mangu,  Nesto- 
rians,  Mussulmans,  and  Shamans  celebrating  their  own  par- 
ticular form  of  worship. 

Kuiuk  had  a  Christian  chapel  near  his  palace ;  Khubila'i 
regularly  took  part  in  the  feast  of  Easter.  In  twelve  hundred 
and  sixty-one  the  Khan  of  Saraii  authorized  the  erection  of  a 
church  and  an  orthodox  bishopric  in  his  capital.  The  Mongols 
had  no  sectarian  hatred  against  bishops  and  priests.  With 
a  sure  political  instinct,  the  Tatars,  like  the  Sultans  of  Stambul, 
understood  that  these  men  could  excite  or  calm  the  people. 
After  the  first  fury  of  the  conquest  was  passed,  they  applied 
themselves  to  gaining  them  over.  They  excepted  priests  and 
monks  from  the  capitation-tax ;  they  received  them  well  at 
the  Horde,  and  gave  pardons  at  their  intercession.  They 
settled  disputes  of  orthodox  prelates,  and  established  peace  in 
the  Church  as  well  as  in  the  State.  In  thirteen  hundred  and 
thirteen  the  Khan  Uzbek,  at  the  prayer  of  Peter,  Metropolitan 
of  Moscow,  confirmed  the  privileges  of  the  Church  and  for- 
bade that  it  should  be  deprived  of  its  possessions,  "  for,"  says 
the  edict,  "  these  possessions  are  sacred,  because  they  belong 
to  men  whose  prayers  preserve  our  lives  and  strengthen  our 
armies."  The  right  of  justice  was  formally  granted  to  the 
Church.  Sacrilege  was  punished  by  death. 


1224-1264.]  ENSLAVEMENT   OF   EUSS1A.  173 

The  convents  also  increased  in  numbers  and  riches.  They 
filled  enormously  :  were  they  not  the  safest  asylums  ?  Their 
peasants  and  servants  multiplied :  was  not  the  protection  of 
the  Church  the  surest  ?  Gifts  of  land  were  showered  on  them, 
as  in  France  in  the  year  ten  hundred.  It  was  thus  that  the 
great  ecclesiastical  patrimony  of  Russia  was  founded,  a  wealthy 
reserve  of  revenues  and  capital,  on  which  more  than  once  in 
national  crises  the  Russian  sovereigns  were  glad  to  draw. 
The  Church,  which,  even  in  its  weakness,  had  steadily  tended 
to  unity  and  autocracy,  was  to  place  at  the  service  of  the  crown 
a  power  which  had  become  enormous.  The  Metropolitans  of 
Moscow  were  almost  always  the  faithful  allies  of  the  Grand 
Princes. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE    LITHUANIANS:      CONQUEST    OF    WEST- 
ERN  RUSSIA. 

1240  -  1430. 

THE  LITHUANIANS.  —  CONQUESTS  OF  MINDVOG  (1240-1263),  OF  GEDI- 
MIN  (1315  -  1340),  AND  OF  OLGERD  (1345  -  1377).  —  IAGELLO.  — 
UNION  OF  LITHUANIA  WITH  POLAND  (1386).  —  THE  GRAND  PRINCE 
VITOVT  (1392-1430).  — BATTLES  OF  THE  VORSKLA  (1399)  AND  OF 
TANNENBERG  (1410). 

THE   LITHUANIANS.  —  CONQUESTS    OF    MINDVOG,  OF  GEDI- 
MIN,  AND  OF  OLGERD. 

THE  Lithuanian  tribes  had  already  been  greatly  broken  up 
by  the  German  conquest.  Russians,  Korsi,  Semigals, 
and  Letts  had  been  brought  into  subjection  either  by  the 
Teutonic  or  Livonian  knights.  Two  among  the  tribes,  the 
Jmudi  and  the  Lithuanians  properly  so  called,  had  preserved 
in  the  deep  forests  and  marshes  of  the  Niemen  their  proud 
independence,  their  ferocity,  and  their  ancient  gods.  A  Rus- 
sian tradition  affirms  that  formerly  they  had  paid  the  Russians 
the  only  tribute  their  poverty  could  afford,  —  bark  and  brooms. 
Jmudi  and  Lithuanians  were  divided,  like  the  ancient  Slavs, 
into  rival  and  jealous  tribes.  Although  more  than  once  they 
marched  from  their  forests,  blowing  long  trumpets,  careering 
on  rough  ponies,  —  though  they  had  made  many  incursions 
into  the  Russian  territory,  —  they  were  not  really  dangerous. 
This  old  Aryan  people,  whom  European  influences  had  never 
modified,  had  preserved  from  the  time  they  dwelt  in  Asia  a 
powerful  sacerdotal  caste,  —  the  va'idclots,  above  whom  were  the 


LITHUANIANS. 


1240-1430.]      CONQUEST   OF   WESTERN   EUSSIA.  175 

krivits,  whose  chief  was  high-priest  of  the  nation.  Their  prin- 
cipal divinity  was  Perkun,  the  god  of  thunder,  analogous  to 
the  Perun  of  the  Russians.  The  sacred  fire  burned  constantly 
before  this  idol.  They  had  also  priestesses,  the  wild  Velledas, 
like  that  Biruta  who,  captured  by  Kestut,  became  the  mother 
of  the  great  Vitovt.  The  time  had  come  when  the  Lithuanians 
must  perish  like  the  Prussians  or  Letts,  if  they  did  not  succeed 
in  uniting  against  Germany.  Emigrants  from  the  countries 
already  conquered  doubtless  brought  them  new  strength  and 
energy.  A  wily  barbarian,  Mindvog,  created  Lithuanian  unity 
at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  in  much  the  same 
way  as  Clovis,  —  by  exterminating  the  princes.  "  He  began," 
says  a  chronicle,  "  by  slaying  his  brothers  and  his  sons,  chased 
the  survivors  from  the  country,  and  reigned  alone  over  the 
land  of  Lithuania."  Thence  he  led  his  savage  warriors 
against  the  Russian  principalities,  now  enfeebled  by  the 
Mongol  invasions,  and  conquered  Grodno  and  Novogrodek. 
Happily  Western  Russia  had  two  great  men  at  its  head,  Alex- 
ander Nevski  and  Daniel  of  Volhynia.  Threatened  on  one 
side  by  these  princes,  on  the  other  by  the  knights  of  Livonia, 
Mindvog  bethought  himself  of  hastening  to  the  Pope  and  em- 
bracing the  Catholic  faith.  A  legate  of  Innocent  the  Fourth 
and  the  landmeister  of  the  Teutonic  order  came  to  Grodno, 
escorted  by  a  brilliant  suite  of  cavaliers.  In  presence  of  an 
immense  concourse  of  people  Mindvog,  together  with  his 
wife,  received  baptism,  and  was  consecrated  King  of  Lithuania 
in  twelve  hundred  and  fifty-two.  The  danger  passed,  and 
Rome  was  forgotten.  He  and  his  new  co-religionists  did  not 
agree,  and  he  was  forced  to  cede  the  Jmud  country  to  the 
Livonian  knights.  Sharing  the  irritation  of  his  subjects,  he 
washed  off  his  baptism  as  the  unfortunate  Livonians  had 
done,  re-established  paganism,  invaded  Mazovia,  ravaged  the 
lands  of  the  Order,  and  defeated  the  landmeister  in  person. 
He  had  taken  the  wife  of  one  of  his  princes  named  Dov- 
mont,  and  had  married  her.  Dovmont  awaited  him  on  the 


176  HISTOEY  OP  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XI. 

road,  and  assassinated  him  in  twelve  hundred  and  sixty-three, 
and  then  fled  from  the  vengeance  of  Mindvog's  son  to  the 
Pskovians.  He  became  their  prince,  was  baptized,  and  de- 
fended them  bravely  against  his  pagan  compatriots  till  he 
died,  and  was  buried  at  the  Church  of  the  Trinity.  Voishel, 
son  of  Mindvog,  in  the  first  fervor  of  an  ephemeral  Christian- 
ity had  become  a  monk.  When  he  heard  of  his  father's  mur- 
der, he  abandoned  his  cowl,  and  began  a  war  of  extermination 
against  the  confederates.  Lithuania  fell  back  into  anarchy 
during  the  contest  of  Mindvog's  descendants  with  the  rest  of 
the  princes  who  refused  to  accept  their  supremacy. 

It  recovered  itself  under  the  enterprising  and  energetic 
Gedimin,  who  ruled  from  thirteen  hundred  and  fifteen  until 
thirteen  hundred  and  forty,  and  was  the  real  founder  of  its 
power.  He  turned  the  exhaustions  and  divisions  of  South 
Russia  to  his  own  profit ;  and  to  the  conquests  of  his  prede- 
cessors —  Grodno,  Pinsk,  Brest,  and  Polotsk  —  soon  added 
Tchernigof,  and  all  Volhynia  with  Vladimir,  under  whose 
walls  in  thirteen  hundred  and  twenty-one  he  defeated  the 
Russians,  aided  though  they  were  by  an  auxiliary  army  of 
Tatars.  As  to  Kief,  it  is  not  known  in  what  year  it  fell 
under  his  power ;  in  the  universal  disorder  this  memorable 
event  passed  almost  unnoticed.  The  old  capital  of  Russia 
was,  however,  destined  to  remain  for  four  hundred  years  — 
up  to  the  time  of  Alexis  Romanof — in  the  hands  of  stran- 
gers. The  Russian  populations  willingly  received  this  new 
master,  who  would  free  them  from  the  heavy  yoke  of  the 
Mongols  and  the  unceasing  civil  wars.  As  he  respected  their 
internal  constitution  and  the  rights  of  the  orthodox  clergy,  it 
appears  that  many  towns  readily  opened  their  gates  to  him. 
Gedimin  sought  to  legalize  his  conquests  by  contracting  alli- 
ances with  the  house  of  Saint  Vladimir,  allowed  his  sons  to 
embrace  the  orthodox  faith,  and  authorized  the  construction  of 
Greek  churches  in  his  residences  at  Vilna  and  Novogrodek.  In 
the  North  he  had  a  perpetual  struggle  to  sustain  against  the 


1240-1430.]      CONQUEST  OF  WESTERN  RUSSIA.  177 

deadly  enemies  of  his  race,  the  military  monks  of  Prussia  and 
Livonia.  Like  Mindvog,  he  addressed  himself  to  the  Pope, 
John  the  Twenty-Second,  and  informed  him  that  he  wished 
to  preserve  his  independence,  that  he  only  asked  protection 
for  his  religion,  that  he  was  surrounded  by  Franciscans  and 
Dominicans  to  whom  he  gave  full  liberty  to  teach  their  doc- 
trine, and  that  he  was  ready  to  recognize  the  Pope  as  supreme 
head  of  the  Church,  if  he  would  stop  the  depredations  of  the 
Germans.  The  French  Pope  sent  him  Bartholomew,  Bishop 
of  Alais,  and  Bernard,  Abbot  of  Puy.  In  the  interval  he  had 
been  exasperated  by  renewed  attacks  of  the  Teutonic  knights, 
and  forced  the  two  legates  to  fly.  He  had  transferred  his 
capital  to  Vilna  on  the  Vilia,  and  the  ruins  of  his  castle  may 
still  be  perceived  on  the  height  which  overlooks  the  citadel. 
He  drew  thither  by  immunities  German  artists  and  artisans, 
and  granted  them  the  rights  of  Riga  and  the  Hanse  towns. 
A  Russian  quarter  was  also  formed  in  his  capital.  He  died, 
and  was  buried  according  to  the  pagan  rite :  his  body  was 
burned  in  a  caldron  together  with  his  war-horse  and  his  favor- 
ite groom. 

After  his  death,  in  thirteen  hundred  and  forty-five,  his  sons 
Olgerd  and  Kestut  deprived  two  of  their  brothers  of  their 
appanages,  and  together  governed  Lithuania,  now  reunited 
into  a  single  state.  Olgerd  humiliated  Novgorod  the  Great, 
which  had  received  another  of  his  fugitive  brothers,  ravaged 
its  territory,  and  forced  the  inhabitants  to  put  to  death  the 
posadnik  who  had  been  the  cause  of  the  war.  He  extended 
his  possessions  to  the  east  and  south,  and  conquered  Vitepsk, 
Mohilef,  Briansk,  Novgorod-Severski,  Kamenets,  and  Podolia ; 
thus  rendering  himself  master  of  nearly  all  the  basin  of  the 
Dnieper,  and  obtaining  a  footing  on  the  coast  of  the  Black 
Sea,  between  the  mouths  of  the  Dnieper  and  the  Dniester. 
With  the  republic  of  Pskof  he  maintained  relations  sometimes 
friendly,  sometimes  hostile ;  gave  it  help  against  the  Germans, 
sent  his  son  Andrei  to  govern  it,  and  occasionally  arrested  its 

VOL.  I.  12 


178  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XI. 

merchants  and  laid  waste  its  territory.  The  Poles  disputed 
Volhynia  with  him,  oppressed  the  orthodox  faith,  and  changed 
the  Greek  into  Latin  churches.  Olgerd  then  made  advances 
to  Simeon  the  Proud,  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow,  and,  though 
a  pagan,  married  Juliana,  Princess  of  Tver.  Under  Simeon's 
successors  the  Lithuanian  army  three  times  took  the  road  to 
Moscow,  and,  without  the  check  imposed  on  him  by  the 
Poles  and  the  two  German  orders,  Olgerd  might  have  made 
the  conquest  of  Eastern  Russia.  In  thirteen  hundred  and 
sixty-eight  he  had  annihilated  the  Mongol  hordes  which 
infested  the  Lower  Dnieper,  and,  more  destructive  than  even 
these  barbarians,  completed  the  ruin  of  Kherson  in  the  Crimea. 


IAGELLO.  —  UNION  OF  LITHUANIA  AND  POLAND. 

Although  Olgerd  had  reconstituted  the  Lithuanian  unity, 
he  fell  back  into  the  old  error,  and  divided  his  states  between 
his  sons  and  his  brother,  the  brave  Kestut,  who  had  been  his 
faithful  associate.  One  of  his  sons,  lagailo,  or  lagello,  who 
ruled  from  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy-seven  until  fourteen 
hundred  and  thirty-four,  cruelly  repaired  his  father's  fault. 
He  treacherously  made  his  uncle  Kestut  prisoner,  and  caused 
him  to  be  put  to  death.  His  brothers  and  cousins  escaped  a 
similar  fate  only  by  flying  to  neighboring  states.  In  spite  of 
this  the  bloody  pagan  was  the  apostle  of  Lithuania.  For  a 
long  while  Christianity  had  sought  to  penetrate  by  two  differ- 
ent channels,  under  the  Latin  form  from  Poland  and  under 
the  Greek  form  from  Russia.  The  fierce  war  waged  by  the 
Lithuanians  against  the  military  monks  of  the  North  had  ren- 
dered Catholicism  particularly  hateful  to  them.  Under  Olgerd 
the  people  of  Vilna  had  risen,  and  fourteen  Franciscans  were 
slain.  On  the  other  hand  the  larger  part  of  the  Lithuanian 
conquests  was  composed  of  Russian  territory,  and  Lithuania 
came  under  the  influence  of  the  Russian  religion  as  well  as  of 
the  Russian  language.  Russian  became  the  official  tongue ;  it 


1240-1430.]          CONQUEST   OF   WESTERN  RUSSIA.  179 

even  seemed  as  if  orthodoxy  were  to  become  the  ruling  faith, 
and  the  victors  were  to  be  absorbed  by  the  vanquished,  and 
Russified  by  their  conquest.  An  unexpected  event  turned  the 
natural  course  of  history.  The  Angevin  and  French  dynasty 
in  Poland  had  lately  been  extinguished  in  the  person  of  Louis 
of  Hungary,  whose  only  heir  was  his  daughter  Hedviga.  The 
Polish  nobles  concluded  that  the  best  way  to  put  an  end  to 
the  eternal  warfare  with  the  Lithuanians  was  by  marrying 
their  queen  to  the  powerful  Prince  of  Vilna.  Hedviga's  heart 
is  said  to  have  been  elsewhere  engaged;  but  the  Catholic 
clergy  set  forth  her  consent  to  this  union  as  a  duty,  the  fulfil- 
ment of  which  was  to  insure  in  Lithuania  proper  the  triumph 
of  the  Latin  faith,  and  thus  to  separate  it  from  the  Lithuanian 
Russian  provinces  which  still  remained  orthodox. 

In  thirteeen  hundred  and  eighty-six  lagello  went  to  Cracow 
and  received  baptism  and  the  crown  of  Poland. 

The  conversion  of  the  Lithuanians  was  then  conducted  after 
a  fashion  as  summary  as  that  of  the  Russians  in  the  time  of 
Vladimir.  They  were  divided  into  groups,  and  the  priest 
then  sprinkled  them  with  holy  water,  pronouncing,  as  he  did 
so,  a  name  of  the  Latin  calendar.  To  one  group  he  gave 
the  name  of  Peter,  to  another  that  of  Paul  or  John.  lagello 
overthrew  the  idol  Perkun,  extinguished  the  sacred  fire  that 
burned  in  the  Castle  of  Vilna,  killed  the  holy  serpents,  and  cut 
down  the  magic  woods.  The  people,  however,  worshipped 
their  gods  for  some  time  longer ;  like  the  Northmen  who  were 
converted  by  the  Carolingians,  many  Lithuanians  presented 
themselves  more  than  once  to  be  baptized,  in  order  to  receive 
again  and  again  the  white  tunic  of  the  neophyte.  By  trans- 
ferring his  capital  to  Cracow,  in  deference  to  his  new  subjects, 
lagello  necessarily  irritated  his  old  subjects.  The  orthodox, 
provoked  by  the  king's  propaganda  in  favor  of  Catholicism, 
allied  themselves  to  the  determined  pagans.  Lithuania  be- 
lieved that  by  its  union  with  Poland  it  had  lost  its  inde- 
pendence. 


180  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XI. 


THE  GRAND  PRINCE  VTTOVT.  —  BATTLES  OF  THE  VORSKLA 
AND   OF  TANNENBERG. 

Vitovt,  son  of  the  hero  Kestut  and  the  priestess  Biruta,  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  malcontents.  He  allied  himself 
with  the  Teutonic  knights,  and  twice  besieged  the  Polish  gar- 
rison in  the  Castle  of  Vilna.  Weary  of  war,  lagello  in  thir- 
teen hundred  and  ninety -two  finally  ceded  him  Lithuania  with 
the  title  of  Grand  Prince. 

Vitovt,  brother-in-law  of  Vasili  Dmitrievitch,  Grand  Prince 
of  Moscow,  took  up  Olgerd's  plans  for  the  subjugation  of  the 
northeast  of  Russia.  Sviatoslaf,  the  last  prince  but  one  of 
Smolensk,  had  made  himself  hated,  even  in  that  iron  age,  by 
his  cruelties.  Fighting  in  the  Russian  territory,  he  took 
pleasure  in  impaling  and  burning  women  and  children  alive. 
He  was  killed  in  thirteen  hundred  and  eighty-seven  in  a  battle 
against  the  Lithuanians,  and  his  son  luri  was  only  the  shadow 
of  a  Grand  Prince  of  Smolensk,  under  Vitovt's  guardianship. 
The  latter,  who  combined  perfidy  with  the  courage  and  energy 
of  his  father,  made  himself  master  of  the  town  by  a  stratagem 
worthy  of  CaBsar  Borgia.  He  contrived  to  induce  the  prince 
and  his  brothers  to  visit  him  in  his  tent,  embraced  and  pressed 
them  in  his  arms,  and  then  declared  them  prisoners  of  war, 
while  his  army  surprised  and  pillaged  Smolensk.  This  queen 
city  on  the  Upper  Dnieper  was  lost  to  Russia.  The  Lithua- 
nian Empire  now  bordered  on  the  ancient  Suzdal  and  the 
principality  of  Riazan.  These  two  countries,  with  Novgorod 
and  Pskof,  were  the  only  ones  which  had  preserved  their  in- 
dependence. It  seemed  as  if  one  campaign  would  suffice  to 
annihilate  the  Russian  name.  But  Vitovt  cherished  great 
projects,  in  which  the  conquest  of  Moscow  was  only  an  inci- 
dent. He  had  already  fought  against  the  Mongols,  and  with 
the  prisoners  taken  in  the  environs  of  Azof  had  peopled  many 
villages  round  Vilna,  where  their  posterity  still  exist.  He 
took  under  his  protection  the  Khan  Tokhtamuish,  whom  Timur 


1240-1430.]     CONQUEST  OF  WESTERN  RUSSIA.  181 

Kutlui  had  expelled  from  Sarai,  and  resolved  to  subjugate  the 
Golden  Horde,  to  install  a  vassal  there,  and  finally  add  to  the 
conquest  of  the  Tatar  Empire  that  of  Moscow  and  Riazan. 
The  army  that  he  assembled  under  the  walls  of  Kief  was  per- 
haps the  most  important  that  had  marched  against  the  infidels 
since  the  first  crusade.  To  his  Lithuanian  troops  he  had 
united  the  Polish  contingent,  sent  by  lagello  under  the  famous 
voievodui  Spitko  of  Cracow,  loann  of  Mazovia,  Sandivog  of 
Ostorog,  Dobrogost  of  Samotul,  and  the  drujinui  of  the  Rus- 
sian princes,  Gleb  of  Smolensk,  Mikhail  and  Dmitri  of  Vol- 
hynia,  the  Mongols  of  Tokhtamuish,  and  five  hundred  knights, 
"  iron  men,"  richly  armed,  sent  by  the  Grand  Master  of  the 
Teutonic  Order.  He  came  up  with  the  enemy  on  the  banks 
of  the  Vorskla,  an  affluent  of  the  Dnieper,  that  runs  near 
Poltava.  It  was  almost  the  battle-field  where  fought  in  seven- 
teen hundred  and  nine  the  heroes  of  the  North.  To  Timur's 
proposals  of  peace  Vitovt  answered  that  God  had  designed 
him  to  be  master  of  the  world,  and  that  the  khan  must  recog- 
nize him  as  his  father,  pay  him  tribute,  and  place  his  armorial 
bearings  on  the  Mongol  coins.  The  khan  negotiated  only  to 
gain  time  till  the  bulk  of  the  Tatar  army,  commanded  by 
Ediger,  came  up.  Ediger,  in  his  turn,  ironically  summoned 
Vitovt  to  acknowledge  him  as  father,  and  to  place  his  arms 
on  the  Lithuanian  coins.  Vitovt,  who  hoped  to  make  up  for 
his  deficiency  in  numbers  by  his  artillery,  gave  the  signal  for 
battle.  A  manoeuvre  of  the  Tatars  on  the  rear  of  the  enemy 
assured  them  the  victory.  Two  thirds  of  the  Lithuanian 
army,  with  the  princes  of  Smolensk  and  Volhynia,  remained 
on  the  field  of  battle.  Timur  pursued  the  remnant  as  far  as 
the  Dnieper,  and  levied  a  war  contribution  on  Kief  and  the 
Monastery  of  the  Catacombs.  So  fell  the  prestige  of  Vitovt. 
Even  the  princes  of  Riazan  thought  that  they  might  safely 
insult  his  frontiers.  But  he  was  still  formidable,  and  the 
Grand  Prince  of  Moscow,  after  having  tried  to  attack  him, 
judged  it  more  prudent  to  make  peace. 


182  HISTOEY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XL 

When  Vitovt  began  to  recover  from  his  disaster,  he  directed 
a  still  more  famous  expedition  against  the  Teutonic  knights. 
The  Grand  Prince  of  Lithuania  had  more  than  once  found 
himself  at  issue  with  the  two  German  orders.  About  this 
time  the  Teutonic  knights  had  lost  their  early  energy,  thanks 
to  the  development  of  the  system  of  fiefs  and  to  the  progress 
of  the  commercial  towns.  In  fourteen  hundred  and  nine 
the  Jmudi  and  Oriental  Prussia,  after  having  protested 
against  the  severity  of  the  yoke  imposed  on  them,  revolted, 
counting  on  Vitovt  to  support  them.  A  new  Grand  Master, 
the  warlike  Ulrich  of  Jungingen,  refused  the  mediation  of 
Vitovt's  suzerain,  the  King  of  Poland.  Upon  this  the  united 
forces  of  Poland  and  Lithuania,  with  forty  thousand  Tatars 
and  twenty-one  thousand  Bohemian,  Hungarian,  Moravian, 
and  Silesian  mercenaries,  making  a  total  of  ninety-seven  thou- 
sand infantry,  sixty-six  thousand  cavalry,  and  sixty  cannons, 
entered  Prussia.  The  Grand  Master  had  only  fifty-seven 
thousand  infantry  and  twenty-six  thousand  cavalry,  with  which 
to  oppose  them.  The  battle  of  Tannenberg  in  fourteen  hun- 
dred and  ten,  gained  chiefly  by  Vitovt,  who  broke  the  German 
centre  and  left  wing,  was  a  blow  from  which  the  power  of  the 
Teutonic  Order  never  recovered.  The  Grand  Master  and 
nearly  all  the  high  dignitaries,  two  hundred  Knights  of  the 
Order,  and  four  hundred  foreign  knights,  besides  four  thou- 
sand soldiers,  were  killed.  Nearly  all  the  princes  of  West- 
ern Russia  took  part  in  the  combat,  and  the  contingent  of 
Smolensk  especially  distinguished  itself.  The  Jmud  country 
was  freed  from  the  Teutonic  rule  and  united  to  Lithuania. 

Three  years  afterwards,  in  fourteen  hundred  and  thirteen, 
the  Congress  of  Horodlo  on  the  Bug,  between  lagello,  accom- 
panied by  the  Polish  nobles,  and  Vitovt,  accompanied  by  his 
Lithuanian  chiefs,  took  place.  It  was  settled  that  the  Lithu- 
anian Catholics  should  receive  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
Polish  nobility ;  and  that  the  representatives  of  the  two  coun- 
tries should  unite  in  a  common  diet  to  elect  the  Kings  of  Po- 


1240-1430.]       CONQUEST   OF  WESTERN  RUSSIA.  183 

land  and  the  Grand  Dukes  of  Lithuania,  and  decide  important 
affairs.  Vitovt  soon  had  differences  with  his  own  subjects : 
the  Jmudi,  so  refractory  under  the  Teutonic  rule,  were  pagans 
and  Lithuanians  at  heart.  They  hated  Catholicism  and  the 
Polish  domination.  They  rose  and  expelled  the  monks.  Vitovt 
could  govern  them  only  by  force. 

The  Russian  provinces  of  Lithuania  were  orthodox,  and 
depended  upon  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow.  Vitovt  wished 
to  shake  off  his  religious  supremacy,  and  demanded  of  the 
Patriarch  of  Constantinople  a  special  metropolitan  for  Western 
Russia.  In  spite  of  the  patriarch's  refusal,  he  convoked  a 
council  of  orthodox  prelates ;  a  learned  Bulgarian  monk, 
Gregory  Tsamblak,  was  elected  Metropolitan  of  Kief.  Thus 
Russia  had  two  religious  chiefs,  as  it  had  two  Grand  Princes, 
—  the  Metropolitan  of  Eastern  Russia  and  the  Metropolitan 
of  Western  Russia  ;  one  at  Moscow,  the  other  at  Kief.  Vitovt 
also  wished  to  free  himself  on  the  western  side,  and  deprive 
Poland  of  its  supremacy  over  Lithuania.  In  fourteen  hun- 
dred and  twenty-nine  he  had  an  interview  with  the  Emperor 
Sigismond,  who  promised  to  create  him  King  of  Lithuania. 
Vitovt,  then  eighty  years  of  age,  was  at  the  height  of  his  power. 
We  see  him  at  the  fetes  of  Troki  and  Vilna,  attended  by  his 
grandson  Vasili  Vasilievitch,  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow,  who 
was  accompanied  by  the  Muscovite  Metropolitan  Photius,  the 
Princes  of  Tver  and  Riazan,  lagello,  King  of  Poland,  the  Khan 
of  the  Crimea,  the  exiled  Hospodar  of  Valakhia,  the  Grand 
Master  of  Prussia,  the  Landmeister  of  Livonia,  and  the  ambas- 
sadors of  the  Emperor  of  the  East.  Daily  were  seven  hundred 
oxen,  fourteen  hundred  sheep,  and  game  in  proportion  con- 
sumed. In  the  midst  of  these  fetes  the  ambitious  old  man 
had  to  swallow  a  bitter  draught.  The  Poles  had  intrigued 
with  the  Pope,  and  he  was  forbidden  to  dream  of  royalty. 
The  ambassadors  of  Sigismond  were  stopped  as  they  were 
bringing  him  the  sceptre  and  the  crown.  Vitovt  fell  ill,  and 
died  of  disappointment  in  fourteen  hundred  and  thirty. 


184  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XL 

After  this  Lithuania  ceased  to  be  formidable.  We  find  it 
in  turns  governed  by  a  Grand  Duke  of  its  own,  united  to 
Poland  under  Vladislas,  separated  again,  then  definitely  placed 
under  the  Polish  sceptre  after  fifteen  hundred  and  one.  Though 
henceforward  it  always  had  the  same  sovereign  as  Poland,  it 
remained  a  state  apart,  —  the  Grand  Principality,  or  Grand 
Duchy,  of  Lithuania.  Its  Lithuanian  and  Russian  provinces 
gradually  became  Polish,  and  the  princely  descendants  of 
Rurik  and  Saint  Vladimir,  or  of  Mindvog  and  Gedimin,  as- 
sumed the  manners  and  language  of  the  Polish  aristocracy. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  GRAND   PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW:   ORGANI- 
ZATION OF  EASTERN   RUSSIA. 

1303-1462. 

ORIGIN  or  Moscow.  —  DANIEL.  —  IUKI  DANIELOVITCH  (1303-1325)  AND 
IVAN  KALITA  (1328-1341).  —  CONTEST  WITH  THE  HOUSE  OF  TVER. 
—  SIMEON  THE  PROUD  AND  IVAN  THE  DEBONAIR  (1341-1359). — 
DMITRI  DONSKO!  (1363-1389).  —  BATTLE  OF  KULIKOVO.— VASILI 
DMITRIE'VITCH  AND  VASILI  THE  BLIND  (1389-1462). 


ORIGIN  OF  MOSCOW.  — DANIEL. 

WHILE  Western  Russia  grouped  itself  around  the  Lithu- 
anian state,  which  had  given  the  conquered  Russian 
provinces  a  new  capital  in  Vilna,  and  soon  involved  them  in  its 
own  union  with  Poland,  Eastern  Russia  grouped  itself  around 
Moscow.  When  this  double  concentration  on  the  Moskova 
and  on  the  Vilna  should  be  accomplished,  Great  Russia,  proud 
of  its  national  and  religious  unity,  and  Lithuanian  Russia,  or 
rather  a  foreign  state  composed  of  the  Russian,  Lithuanian, 
and  Polish  races,  and  of  three  religions,  the  Greek,  Roman, 
and  Protestant,  besides  the  Jewish,  would  find  themselves  face 
to  face.  The  contest  of  these  two  sister-enemies  will  fill  many 
centuries  of  the  history  of  the  North.  To  other  sovereigns, 
in  other  centuries,  will  fall  the  task  of  reconstituting  the  Rus- 
sian unity  in  its  fullest  extent.  The  honor  of  the  princes  of 
Moscow  is  that  they  created  the  living  germ  which  became 
Great  Russia. 

Around    Moscow,   under   the   Mongol  yoke,   a   race   was 


186  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

formed,  patient  and  resigned,  yet  energetic  and  enterprising, 
born  to  endure  bad  fortune  and  profit  by  good,  which  in  the 
long  run  was  to  get  the  upper  hand  over  Western  Russia  and 
Lithuania.  There  grew  a  dynasty  of  princes,  politic  and  per- 
severing, prudent  and  pitiless,  of  gloomy  and  terrible  mien, 
whose  foreheads  were  marked  by  the  seal  of  fatality.  They 
were  the  founders  of  the  Russian  Empire,  as  the  Capets  were 
of  the  French  monarchy. 

The  means  used  by  the  sovereigns  of  Russia  were  very  dif- 
ferent. Here  we  shall  find  no  sympathetic  figures  like  that 
of  Louis  the  Sixth  careering  proudly  in  the  narrow  domains  of 
France,  capturing  rebel  castles  in  the  face  of  the  sun,  —  of  a 
Louis  the  Ninth,  true  mirror  of  chivalry,  the  noblest  incar- 
nation of  the  kingly  ideal.  The  princes  of  Moscow  gained 
their  ends  by  intrigue,  corruption,  the  purchase  of  consciences, 
servility  to  the  khans,  perfidy  to  their  equals,  murder,  and 
treachery.  They  were  at  once  the  tax-gatherers  and  the 
police  of  the  khans.  But  they  created  the  germ  of  the  Rus- 
sian monarchy,  and  made  it  grow.  Henceforward  we  have  a 
fixed  centre  around  which  gathers  that  scattered  history  of 
Russia  which  we  have  had  to  follow  in  so  many  different 
places,  —  in  Novgorod  and  Pskof,  in  Livonia  and  in  Lithua- 
nia, at  Smolensk  and'  in  Gallicia,  at  Tchernigof  and  at  Kief, 
at  Vladimir  and  at  Riazan.  The  mutilation  of  Russia,  con- 
quered on  the  west  by  the  Lithuanians,  enslaved  on  the  east 
by  the  Mongols,  was  to  facilitate  the  work  of  organization. 
In  this  diminished  fatherland  the  sovereigns  of  Moscow  could 
play  more  easily  the  part  of  Grand  Princes. 

The  extent  of  country  which  had  by  the  middle  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  escaped  the  Lithuanian  conquest  was  very 
small.  Without  counting  Smolensk,  whose  days  were  num- 
bered, there  remained  the  following  principalities :  Riazan, 
with  its  appanages  of  Pronsk  and  Pereiaslavl-Riazanski ;  Suz- 
dal, with  the  towns  of  Vladimir,  Nijni-Novgorod,  Suzdal, 
Galitch  in  Suzdal,  Kostroma,  and  Gorodets;  Tver,  situated 


1303-1462.]     THE' GRAND  PRINCES   OF  MOSCOW.  187 

on  the  Upper  Volga,  and  chiefly  made  up  of  bailiwicks  taken 
from  Novgorod  by  the  Grand  Princes  of  Suzdal,  with  the 
towns  of  Rjef,  Kashin,  and  Zubtsof ;  Moscow,  shut  in  on  the 
north  by  Tver,  on  the  east  by  Suzdal,  on  the  south  by  Riazan, 
nearly  stifled  by  its  powerful  neighbors,  like  the  France  of  the 
Capets  between  the  formidable  states  of  English  Normandy, 
Flanders,  and  Champagne. 

The  name  of  Moscow  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the 
chronicles  at  the  date  of  eleven  hundred  and  forty-seven.  It 
is  there  said  that  the  Grand  Prince  luri  Dolgoruki,  having 
arrived  on  the  domain  of  a  boyar  named  Stephen  Kutchko, 
caused  him  to  be  put  to  death  on  some  pretext,  and  that, 
struck  by  the  position  of  one  of  the  villages  situated  on  a 
height  washed  by  the  Moskova,  the  very  spot  whereon  the 
Kreml  now  stands,  he  built  the  city  of  Moscow.  In  the 
Capitol  of  ancient  Rome  the  founder,  Romulus,  discovered 
the  head  of  a  man ;  the  Capitol  of  Moscow,  destined  to  be- 
come the  centre  of  an  empire,  was  sprinkled  in  its  beginning 
by  human  blood.  The  name  of  a  still-existing  church, 
"  Saint  Savior  of  the  Pines,"  preserves  the  memory  of  the 
thick  forests  that  then  clothed  both  banks  of  the  Moskova,  on 
the  space  now  covered  by  an  immense  capital.  During  the 
century  following  its  foundation  Moscow  remained  an  obscure 
and  insignificant  village  of  Suzdal.  The  chroniclers  do  not 
allude  to  it  except  to  mention  that  it  was  burned  by  the 
Tatars  in  twelve  hundred  and  thirty-seven,  or  that  a  brother 
of  Alexander  Nevski,  Mikhail  of  Moscow,  was  killed  there  in 
a  battle  with  the  Lithuanians.  The  real  founder  of  the  prin- 
cipality of  the  name  was  Daniel,  a  son  of  Alexander  Nevski, 
who  had  received  this  small  town  and  a  few  villages  as  his 
appanage.  He  increased  his  state  by  an  important  town, 
Pereiaslavl-Zalieski,  that  belonged  to  one  of  his  nephews,  and 
by  the  addition  of  Kolomna,  which  he  took  from  the  Riazan- 
ese.  At  his  death,  in  thirteen  hundred  and  three,  he  was  the 
first  to  be  buried  in  the  Church  of  Saint  Michael  the  Arch- 


188  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

angel,  which  till  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  remained  the 
bury  ing-place  of  the  Russian  princes.  He  was  followed,  in 
due  course,  by  his  sons  luri  and  Ivan. 


IURI  DANTELO  VETCH  AND  IVAN  KALITA.  —  CONTEST 
WITH  THE  HOUSE  OF  TVER, 

The  first  act  of  luri  Danielovitch,  who  reigned  from  thir- 
teen hundred  and  three  till  thirteen  hundred  and  twenty-five, 
was  to  capture  Mojaisk  from  the  Prince  of  Smolensk,  and  to 
take  the  latter  prisoner.  Almost  at  the  same  time  began  the 
bloody  struggle  with  the  house  of  Tver,  which,  transmitted 
from  father  to  son,  lasted  for  eighty  years.  When  Andrei 
Alexandrovitch,  Grand  Prince  of  Suzdal,  died,  in  thirteen 
hundred  and  four,  two  competitors  presented  themselves,  — 
Mikhail  of  Tver,  cousin-german  of  the  deceased,  and  his 
nephew  luri  of  Moscow.  The  claim  of  Mikhail  was  incon- 
testable ;  was  he  not  the  eldest  of  the  family  ?  The  boyars 
of  Vladimir  and  the  citizens  of  Novgorod  did  not  hesitate 
to  acknowledge  him  as  Grand  Prince;  at  Sarai,  Tokhta  the 
khan  declared  in  his  favor,  and  ordered  him  to  be  installed. 
Mikhail,  who  had  on  his  side  the  national  law  and  the  sov- 
ereign will  of  the  Mongols,  could  also  use  force ;  he  twice  be- 
sieged Moscow,  and  obliged  the  son  of  Daniel  to  leave  him  in 
peace.  In  this  young  man  he  had  an  implacable  enemy.  The 
chroniclers,  indignant  at  luri's  revolt  against  the  old  hereditary 
custom,  unanimously  pronounce  against  him.  While  making 
due  allowance  for  their  efforts  to  blacken  his  character,  we 
cannot  help  seeing  that  he  was  not  a  man  to  shrink  from  any 
crime.  His  father  had  taken  the  Prince  of  Riazan  prisoner. 
He  had  him  assassinated  in  his  dungeon,  and  would  have 
taken  possession  of  his  territories,  if  the  khan  had  not  ordered 
the  rights  of  the  young  heir  to  be  respected.  Then  luri  caused 
himself  to  be  recognized  as  Prince  of  Novgorod,  to  the  preju- 
dice of  Mikhail,  but  the  army  of  Tver  and  Vladimir  defeated 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND   PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  189 

that  furnished  him  by  the  republic.  An  unexpected  event 
suddenly  changed  the  face  of  things.  The  Khan  Tokhta  died  ; 
luri  managed  to  gain  the  good  graces  of  his  successor  Uzbek, 
so  that  the  latter  gave  him  his  sister  Kontchaka  in  marriage, 
and,  reversing  the  decision  of  Tokhta,  adjudged  him  the  grand 
principality.  Daniel's  son  returned  to  Russia  with  a  Mongol 
army,  commanded  by  the  baskak  Kavgadi.  Mikhail  consented, 
say  the  chroniclers,  to  cede  Vladimir,  if  his  hereditary  appa- 
nage were  respected ;  but  luri  began  to  lay  waste  the  country  of 
Tver,  and  war  was  inevitable.  Mikhail  triumphed  completely. 
The  Tatar  wife  of  luri,  his  brother  Boris,  the  Mongol  general 
Kavgadi,  and  nearly  all  the  officers  of  the  khan,  fell  into  his 
hands.  Mikhail  covered  his  prisoners  with  attentions  dictated 
by  prudence.  Kavgadi,  released  with  honor,  swore  to  be  his 
friend,  but,  as  the  khan's  sister  died,  the  enemies  of  the  Prince 
of  Tver  set  on  foot  a  report  that  he  had  poisoned  her.  The 
cause  of  the  two  princes  was  carried  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
khan.  Whilst  the  indefatigable  Muscovite  went  in  person, 
with  his  hands  full  of  presents,  to  the  Horde,  Mikhail  had  the 
imprudence  to  send  his  son,  a  boy  twelve  years  old,  in  his 
place.  Finding  luri  was  occupied  in  accusing,  intriguing,  and 
corrupting,  Mikhail  at  last  made  up  his  mind  to  follow  him. 
Not  unprepared  for  the  lot  that  awaited  him,  he  made  his 
will,  and  distributed  appanages  among  his  children.  He  was 
accused  of  having  drawn  his  sword  against  a  baskak,  envoy 
of  the  khan,  and  of  having  poisoned  Kontchaka.  These 
accusations  were  so  manifestly  absurd,  that  Uzbek  deferred 
judgment.  This,  however,  did  not  meet  luri's  views,  and,  by 
means  of  intrigues,  he  obtained  the  arrest  of  his  kinsman. 
The  khan  now  set  out  for  some  months'  hunting  in  the  Cau- 
casus. Mikhail  was  dragged  in  the  train  of  the  court,  loaded 
with  irons,  from  Sara'i  to  Dediakof  in  Daghestan.  One  day 
he  was  put  in  the  pillory  in  the  market  of  a  thickly  populated 
town,  and  the  spectators  crowded  to  see  him,  saying,  "  This 
prisoner  was,  a  short  time  ago,  a  powerful  prince  in  his  own 


190  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

country."  Mikhail's  boyars  had  told  him  to  escape ;  he  re- 
fused, not  wishing  his  people  to  suffer  for  him.  luri  was  so 
energetic,  and  scattered  about  so  much  money,  that,  finally, 
the  death-warrant  was  signed.  One  of  Mikhail's  pages  en- 
tered the  tent  which  served  him  as  a  prison,  in  great  alarm, 
to  tell  him  that  luri  and  Kavgadi  were  approaching,  followed 
by  a  multitude  of  people.  "  I  know  the  reason,"  replied  the 
prince ;  and  he  sent  his  young  son  Konstantin  to  one  of  the 
khan's  wives,  who  had  promised  to  take  him  under  her  pro- 
tection. His  two  enemies  took  their  stand  near  his  tent,  dis- 
missed the  boyars  of  Tver,  and  sent  their  hired  ruffians  to 
assassinate  the  prince.  They  threw  him  down,  and  trampled 
him  under  their  feet.  As  in  the  case  of  Mikhail  of  Tcher- 
nigof,  it  was  not  a  Mongol  that  stabbed  him  and  tore  out 
his  heart,  but  a  renegade  named  Romanets.  When  luri  and 
Kavgadi  entered  and  contemplated  the  naked  corpse,  "  What," 
said  the  Tatar,  "  will  you  allow  the  body  of  your  uncle  to  be 
outraged  ?  "  One  of  luri's  servants  threw  a  mantle  over  the 
victim.  His  death  took  place  in  thirteen  hundred  and  nine- 
teen. Mikhail  was  bewailed  by  the  Tverians.  His  body, 
incorruptible  as  that  of  a  martyr,  was  afterwards  deposited 
in  a  silver  shrine  in  the  Cathedral  of  Tver.  He  became  a  saint, 
and  the  patron  of  his  city.  On  the  walls  of  the  cathedral 
ancient  and  modern  pictures  recall  his  martyrdom,  and  con- 
demn the  crime  of  the  Muscovite.  All  the  contemporary 
chroniclers  warmly  take  his  part  against  the  assassin.  Karam- 
sin  has  made  himself  the  echo  of  their  apologies  and  curses. 
But  at  the  same  time  that  Mikhail  became  a  saint  luri 
became  the  all-powerful  sovereign  of  Moscow,  Suzdal,  and 
Novgorod.  Mikhail's  tragic  fate  foretold  the  ruin  of  Tver. 

Some  years  afterwards  things  were  reversed  at  the  Horde. 
Dmitri  of  the  Terrible  Eyes,  son  of  the  unhappy  Mikhail,  ob- 
tained the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  and  the  baskak  Seventch 
Bonga  was  charged  to  place  him  on  the  throne  of  Vladimir, 
luri  found  himself  obliged  to  go  again  to  Sarai;  there  the 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND  PEINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  191 

two  rivals,  Dmitri  of  Tver  and  luri  of  Moscow,  met.  Dmitri 
had  his  father  to  avenge  ;  his  sword  leaped  from  the  scabbard, 
and  the  Prince  of  Moscow  fell  mortally  wounded,  in  thirteen 
hundred  and  twenty-five.  All  that  his  friends  could  obtain 
was  that  Dmitri  should  be  put  to  death.  The  latter  was  suc- 
ceeded in  Vladimir  by  his  brother  Alexander. 

Unluckily  for  the  house  of  Tver,  the  following  year  the 
Tverians,  exasperated  by  the  baskak  Shevkal,  rose  in  rebellion 
and  murdered  him  and  all  his  suite.  Alexander,  instead  of 
imitating  the  firm  prudence  of  his  Muscovite  neighbors, 
allowed  himself  to  be  carried  away  by  the  popular  passion. 
He  himself  assaulted  the  palace  of  the  baskak,  and  lighted  the 
fire.  After  such  an  action,  he  had  no  pity  to  expect  from  the 
khan ;  and  if  Uzbek  could  have  forgotten  the  insult  to  his 
majesty,  the  princes  of  Moscow  would  have  kept  him  in  mind 
of  it.  luri's  brother,  Ivan  Kalita,  offered  to  complete  the  ruin 
of  Tver.  Uzbek  promised  him  the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  and 
gave  him  an  army  of  fifty  thousand  Tatars,  to  whom  were 
joined  the  contingents  of  Moscow  and  Suzdal.  Alexander, 
who  had  not  had  the  wisdom  to  resist  his  people,  had  likewise 
not  the  courage  to  defend  them  and  die  with  them.  He  fled, 
with  his  brothers,  to  Pskof  and  Ladoga.  Pitiless  was  the 
vengeance  of  the  khan  and  the  vengeance  of  Moscow.  Tver, 
Kashin,  and  Torjok  were  sacked.  Novgorod  had  to  buy  itself 
off  by  a  war  indemnity.  Not  content  with  exterminating  the 
Tverians,  Uzbek  put  to  death  at  the  same  time  the  Prince  of 
Riazan,  son  of  that  Prince  laroslaf  whom  luri  Danielovitch 
had  murdered  in  prison.  The  Horde  and  Moscow  seemed  to 
have  the  same  enemies,  —  they  struck  in  concert.  It  is  re- 
markable that  it  was  in  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  Mikhail  of 
Tver  and  Dmitri  "  with  the  terrible  eyes  "  that  "  holy  Russia" 
came  to  her  growth. 

Ivan  Kalita  became  Grand  Prince  in  thirteen  hundred  and 
twenty-eight,  and  made  the  journey  to  the  Horde  with  Mikhail's 
son  Konstantin,  who  had  replaced  the  fugitive  Alexander  on 


192  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

the  throne  of  Tver.  '  Ivan  was  well  received,  but  Uzbek  com- 
manded him  to  make  Alexander  appear  before  him.  The 
ambassadors  of  the  Grand  Prince  went  to  Pskof,  to  conjure 
Alexander  to  appear,  or  to  summon  the  Pskovians  to  deliver 
him  up.  "  Do  not  expose,"  they  said,  "  a  Christian  people  to 
the  wrath  of  the  infidels."  But  the  Pskovians,  touched  by 
the  prayers  of  the  Prince  of  Tver,  replied,  "  Do  not  go  to  the 
Horde,  my  lord ;  whatever  happens,  we  will  die  with  thee." 
As  magnanimous  as  the  Novgorodians  at  the  time  of  Alexan- 
der Nevski,  as  heroically  absurd,  they  ordered  the  ambassa- 
dors to  be  gone,  took  up  arms,  and  built  a  new  fortress  near 
Izborsk.  Ivan  assembled  an  army  and  persuaded  the  Metro- 
politan Theognostus  to  place  Alexander  and  the  Pskovians 
under  an  interdict.  Thus  men  saw  a  Christian  prince  per- 
secute one  of  his  kinsmen  by  order  of  the  Tatars,  and  a 
metropolitan  excommunicate  the  Christians  to  force  them  to 
obey  the  khan.  The  Pskovians,  though  alarmed,  would  not 
yield  an  inch ;  but  Alexander  left  them  and  took  refuge  in 
Lithuania  in  thirteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine.  Then  they 
said  to  the  Grand  Prince,  "  Alexander  is  gone ;  all  Pskof 
swears  it,  from  the  smallest  to  the  greatest,  popes,  monks, 
nuns,  orphans,  women,  and  children." 

Alexander  afterwards  returned,  and  was  again  recognized  by 
them  as  their  prince,  but  still  regretted  his  good  city  of  Tver. 
The  protection  of  the  Lithuanian  Gedimin  was  too  dangerous 
and  too  burdensome.  Alexander  thought  it  would  be  easier 
to  bend  the  terrible  Uzbek.  He  went  to  the  Horde  with  his 
boyars.  "  Lord,  all-powerful  Tsar,"  he  said  to  Uzbek,  "  if  I 
have  done  anything  against  you,  I  have  come  hither  to  receive 
of  you  life  or  death.  Do  as  God  inspires  you;  I  am  ready  for 
either."  The  khan  pardoned  him,  and  Alexander  returned  to 
Tver.  Ivan  Kalita  had  hoped  he  had  forever  got  rid  of  him. 
In  Alexander's  absence  he  was  the  master  of  Russia,  had  in- 
terfered in  the  affairs  of  Tver,  married  one  of  his  daughters  to 
Vladimir  of  laroslavl  and  another  to  Konstantin  of  Rostof, 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  193 

brother  of  the  banished  prince.  The  return  of  Alexander 
gave  a  chief  to  those  who  were  discontented  with  Ivan.  In- 
stead of  declaring  war,  Ivan  preferred  to  resort  to  his  ordinary 
means.  He  flew  to  the  Horde,  and  there  represented  Alexan- 
der as  the  most  dangerous  enemy  of  the  Mongols.  In  conse- 
quence of  these  insinuations  Alexander  was  summoned  before 
the  khan ;  this  time  he  was  beheaded,  with  his  son  Feodor. 
The  rivalry  with  Moscow  had  already  cost  four  princes  of  the 
house  of  Tver  their  lives.  Uzbek,  who  had  confidence  only  in 
Moscow,  and  who  wished  to  govern  the  rest  of  Russia  by 
terror,  about  this  time  put  the  Prince  of  Starodub  to  death. 
The  princes  Konstantin  and  Vasili  of  Tver,  sons,  brothers,  and 
uncles  of  the  victims,  felt  that  they  could  maintain  themselves 
only  by  obedience  to  their  terrible  father-in-law.  As  a  proof 
of  submission  they  sent  to  Kalita  the  great  bell  of  the  Cathe- 
dral of  Tver.  The  princes  of  Riazan  and  Suzdal  were  also 
obliged  to  fight  under  his  standards.  Novgorod,  threatened 
by  him,  began  the  course  which  afterwards  proved  so  fatal, 
and  which  almost  brought  about  the  ruin  of  Russia  ;  it  allied 
itself  with  Lithuania,  accepted  as  prince  Narimond,  a  son  of 
Gedimin,  and  gave  him  the  Novgorodian  possessions  in  Ingria 
and  Karelia  as  hereditary  appanages.  It  tried  also  to  make 
friends  with  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow,  but  Ivan  desired 
only  to  restrict  its  liberties,  and  exacted,  in  the  name  of  the 
khan,  a  double  capitation-tax. 

This  un  warlike  prince,  at  the  same  time  that  he  strengthened 
his  supremacy,  acquired  by  purchase  the  towns  of  Uglitch, 
Galitch,  Bielozersk,  and  lands  in  the  neighborhoods  of  Kostro- 
ma, Vladimir,  and  Rostof.  He  was  at  once  Prince  of  Moscow 
and  Grand  Prince  of  Vladimir;  but  Moscow  was  his  inherit- 
ance, of  which  he  could  not  legally  be  despoiled  by  the  khan, 
while  Vladimir  could  be  given  to  another  house.  It  was  thus 
that  in  Germany  the  archduchy  of  Austria  was  hereditary,  while 
the  imperial  crown  might  legally  pass  to  another  family.  It 
may  therefore  be  imagined  how  Kalita  chose  to  sacrifice  Vla- 

VOL.  I.  13 


194  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

dimir  to  Moscow,  as  the  Hapsburgs  sacrificed  Frankfort  to 
Vienna.  His  Tverian  rivals,  the  two  grand  princes,  his  prede- 
cessors, had  acted  in  the  same  way.  Mikhail  and  Dmitri  of 
Tver  had  hardly  appeared  at  Vladimir,  except  to  be  crowned 
in  the  cathedral.  They  lived  habitually  in  their  appanage 
towns,  one  at  Tver,  the  other  at  Pereiaslavl.  Under  Kalita, 
Vladimir  remained  the  legal  capital  of  Russia ;  Moscow  was 
the  real  capital,  and  Kalita  was  working  to  make  it  the  legal 
as  well  as  the  actual  capital.  The  Metropolitan  of  Vladimir, 
Peter,  who  had  an  affection  for  Moscow,  often  resided  there. 
His  successor,  Theognostus,  established  himself  there  com- 
pletely. Then  the  religious  supremacy  which  had  first  be- 
longed to  Kief,  and  next  to  Vladimir,  passed  to  Moscow. 
Kalita  did  his  best  to  give  it  the  prestige  of  a  metropolis.  He 
built  magnificent  churches  in  the  Kreml,  among  others  that  of 
the  Assumption,  the  Uspienski  sobor.  The  first  Metropolitans 
of  Moscow,  thanks  to  him  and  his  successors,  were  beatified. 
Saint  Alexis  and  Saint  Peter  are  reckoned  among  the  patron- 
saints  of  Russia.  It  is  related  that  the  Metropolitan  Peter 
himself  marked  out  the  place  of  his  tomb  in  the  new  church, 
and  that  he  said  to  Ivan,  "  God  will  bless  thee,  and  elevate  thee 
above  all  the  other  princes,  and  raise  this  town  above  all  other 
towns.  Thy  race  will  reign  in  this  place  during  many  cen- 
turies ;  their  hands  will  conquer  all  their  enemies ;  the  saints 
will  make  their  dwelling  here,  and  here  shall  my  bones 
repose." 

What  made  the  chief  glory  of  Kief,  the  ancient  metropolis, 
was  the  famous  Petcherski  monastery,  with  its  holy  catacombs 
and  the  tombs  of  so  many  ascetics  and  wonder-workers.  Mos- 
cow had  also  its  heritage  of  virtues  and  glorious  austerity. 
Under  Kalita's  successor,  not  far  from  the  capital,  in  a  deep 
forest,  where  he  had  at  first  no  companion  but  a  bear,  on  water- 
courses which  were  haunted  only  by  the  beavers,  Saint  Sergius 
founded  the  Troi'tsa,  or  monastery  of  the  Trinity,  which  became 
one  of  the  richest  and  most  venerated  of  Eastern  Russia.  On 


MONASTERY    OF    ST.    SERG1US    AT    TROITSA. 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  195 

account  of  its  increase  of  wealth,  it  was  obliged  to  be  sur- 
rounded with  ramparts ;  and  its  thick  brick  walls  with  a 
triple  row  of  embrasures,  its  nine  war-towers,  arid  its  still 
existing  fortifications,  were  afterwards  destined  to  brave  the 
assaults  of  Catholics  and  infidels.  The  princes  of  Moscow, 
in  spite  of  their  perfidious  and  pitiless  policy,  were  as  pious 
as  good  King  Robert,  —  devotees,  alms-givers,  indefatigable  in 
building  churches  and  monasteries,  in  honoring  the  clergy,  and 
in  helping  the  poor.  The  surname  of  Kalita  given  to  Ivan 
comes  from  the  kalita,  or  alms-bag,  he  wore  always  at  his  girdle. 
This  kalita  may  also  have  been  Shylock's  purse,  —  the  bag  of 
a  prince  who  was  farmer-general  and  usurer,  who  demanded 
from  Novgorod  double  what  he  intended  to  pay  on  its  behalf 
to  Uzbek.  Ivan  liked  to  converse  with  the  monks  in  his 
Convent  of  the  Transfiguration.  Like  all  the  other  princes  of 
the  house,  he  took  care,  when  at  the  point  of  death,  to  be  ton- 
sured and  adopt  the  religious  dress  and  a  new  name. 

If  the  princes  of  Moscow  labored  with  fierce  energy  to  bind 
together  the  Russian  lands  under  one  head,  they  continued  to 
divide  it  into  appanages  among  their  sons.  But  many  causes 
contributed  to  prevent  the  return  of  the  former  anarchy. 
These  princes,  as  a  rule,  had  few  sons ;  they  gradually  got 
into  the  way  of  giving  only  very  weak  appanages  to  the 
younger  ones,  and  these  on  condition  of  an  absolute  depend- 
ence on  the  eldest.  Ivan,  for  example,  had  only  three  sons ; 
he  gave  by  far  the  larger  share,  Mojai'sk  and  Kolomna,  to 
Simeon,  and  forbade  Moscow  to  be  divided.  The  idea  of  the 
state  as  one  and  indivisible  was  certain  to  gain  the  day. 

SIMEON  THE  PROUD  AND   IVAN  THE  DEBONAIR. 

Kalita  was  succeeded  by  his  two  sons  one  after  the  other  : 
Simeon  the  Proud  reigning  from  thirteen  hundred  and  forty- 
one  to  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty-three,  and  Ivan  the  Second 
from  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty-three  to  thirteen  hundred  and 


196  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

fifty-nine.  They  were  all  three  contemporaries  of  the  early 
Valois.  At  the  news  of  Ivan's  death  many  princes  at  once 
disputed  the  throne  of  Vladimir  with  his  sons.  Konstantin 
of  Tver  and  Konstantin  of  Suzdal,  especially,  were  supported 
by  the  other  princes  who  did  not  desire  the  title  of  Grand 
Prince  to  be  perpetuated  in  the  house  of  Moscow.  They 
went  to  the  Horde  at  the  same  time  that  Simeon  and  his  two 
sons  travelled  thither.  Simeon  owed  his  success  neither  to 
his  eloquence  nor  his  arguments,  but  to  the  treasure  of  his 
father,  which  won  over  the  infidels.  After  being  crowned  in 
the  Cathedral  of  Vladimir,  he  swore  to  live  in  harmony  with 
his  two  brothers,  and  exacted  from  them  the  same  oath. 
While  pushing  his  submission  to  the  khan  to  the  verge  of 
baseness,  he  domineered  over  the  Russian  princes  with  a 
haughtiness  that  gained  for  him  the  surname  of  "  the  Proud." 
He  forced  Novgorod  to  pay  him  a  contribution,  and,  in  his 
capacity  of  supreme  head  of  Russia,  confirmed  the  liberties 
of  the  republic.  He  was  the  first  who  assumed  the  title  of 
"  Grand  Prince  of  all  the  Russias,"  which  was  little  justified 
by  the  facts,  as  in  thirteen  hundred  and  forty-one  Olgerd  of 
Lithuania  besieged  the  town  of  Mojaisk,  Simeon's  own  appa- 
nage. The  friendship  of  Saint  Alexis,  third  Metropolitan  of 
Moscow,  gave  him  great  moral  aid.  In  his  reign  Boris,  a 
Russian  artist,  cast  bells  for  the  cathedrals  of  Moscow  and 
Novgorod  ;  three  churches  of  the  Kreml  were  adorned  with 
new  paintings,  —  that  of  the  Assumption,  by  Greek  artists  ; 
that  of  Saint  Michael,  by  the  Court  painters ;  that  of  the 
Transfiguration,  by  a  foreigner  named  Goiten.  Paper  replaced 
parchment ;  and  it  was  on  paper  that  Simeon's  will  was 
written.  Russia  then  still  maintained  its  old  relations  with 
Byzantium,  and  entered  into  new  ones  with  Europe.  Simeon 
died  of  the  famous  "black  death,"  or  "black  pestilence," 
which  at  this  time  desolated  the  West. 

Ivan  the  Second,  the  brother  who  succeeded  the  Proud  in 
thirteen  hundred  and  fifty-three,  deserves,  on  the  contrary, 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND   PEINCES   OF   MOSCOW.  197 

the  surname  of  "  the  Debonair."  He  was  of  a  different  type 
from  the  sinister  princes  of  Suzdal,  and  was  pacific  and 
gentle.  The  anarchy  into  which  Russia  fell  during  the  six 
years  of  his  reign  shows  how  little  his  virtues  were  those  of 
his  century.  Without  attempting  to  avenge  himself,  Ivan 
permitted  Oleg  of  Riazan  to  insult  his  territory,  burn  his  vil- 
lages of  the  Lopasnia,  and  ill-treat  his  lieutenant.  He  allowed 
the  Novgorodians  to  despise  his  authority  and  obey  Konstan- 
tin  of  Suzdal ;  he  let  the  Grand  Duke  Olgerd  occupy  Rjef, 
and  Andrei  of  Lithuania  menace  Pskof.  He  interfered  neither 
in  the  civil  wars  of  the  princes  of  Riazan,  nor  in  those  of  the^ 
principality  of  Tver,  nor  in  the  troubles  excited  at  Novgorod 
by  the  rivalry  of  the  Slavonian  quarters  and  that  of  Saint 
Sophia,  nor  in  the  storm  raised  in  the  Church  by  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople,  who  dared  to  consecrate  a  rival  of 
Saint  Alexis  as  Metropolitan.  The  murder  of  one  of  his 
officers,  Alexis,  military  governor  of  Moscow,  remained  un- 
punished. In  this  weakness  of  the  prince,  the  churchmen 
naturally  came  to  the  front,  and  took  up  the  part  abandoned 
by  him.  Moses,  Archbishop  of  Novgorod,  quelled  a  revolt  in 
the  republic  ;  Saint  Alexis  reconciled  the  princes  of  Tver,  and 
acquired,  by  a  miraculous  cure,  great  power  in  the  Horde,  by 
which  he  profited  to  protect  his  people  and  his  prince.  At 
the  death  of  Ivan  the  Second  the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  which 
his  three  predecessors  had  made  such  efforts  to  perpetuate  in 
the  house  of  Moscow,  passed  to  that  of  Suzdal.  Dmitri  of 
Suzdal,  furnished  with  the  iarluik,  made  his  solemn  entry 
into  Vladimir  in  thirteen  hundred  and  fifty-nine.  It  was 
again  Saint  Alexis  who  saved  the  supremacy  of  Moscow. 
After  having  blessed  the  Grand  Prince  in  Vladimir,  he  re- 
turned to  his  care  of  the  voung  children  of  Ivan  the  Second, 

*/ 

and  to  Moscow,  which  had  for  a  moment  ceased  to  be  the 
capital.  It  was  by  his  counsels  that  Dmitri  Ivanovitch,  at  the 
age  of  twelve,  dared  to  declare  himself  the  rival  of  Dmitri  of 
Suzdal,  and  determined  to  appeal  to  the  tribunal  of  the  khan. 


198  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  Golden  Horde  was  then  a  prey  to  civil  wars ;  the  fero- 
cious Mamai  harassed  Murut,  but  as  the  latter  reigned  at 
Sarai,  and  seemed  the  legitimate  successor  of  Batui,  it  was  to 
him  that  the  Suzdalian  and  Muscovite  boyars  addressed  them- 
selves. Murut  adjudged  the  Grand  Principality  to  Dmitri 
Ivanovitch,  Kalita's  grandson,  whom  a  Muscovite  army  led  to 
be  consecrated  in  Vladimir. 


DMITRI  DONSKOL— THE  BATTLE  OF  KULIKOVO. 

Dmitri  Ivanovitch,  who  reigned  from  thirteen  hundred  and 
sixty-three  until  thirteen  hundred  and  eighty-nine,  is  distin- 
guished from  nearly  all  the  Suzdal  princes  by  a  warlike  and 
chivalrous  character  worthy  of  the  West.  He  proves  that  the 
Russian  soul  had  been  only  repressed,  not  rendered  depraved 
and  servile,  by  the  Tatar  yoke,  and  that  Slav  chivalry  only 
awaited  an  opportunity  to  raise  the  cry  of  war,  and  make  their 
swords  flash  like  the  preux  chevaliers  of  Louis  the  Ninth  or 
of  John  the  Good.  Dmitri  had  at  once  to  sustain  a  series  of 
wars  against  the  neighboring  princes ;  notably  against  Dmitri 
of  Suzdal,  Mikhail  of  Tver,  and  Oleg  of  Riazan.  As  changes 
took  place  at  the  Horde,  Dmitri  of  Suzdal  obtained  from  the 
Khan  Murut  a  reversal  of  his  first  decision,  and  returned  to 
Vladimir.  The  Prince  of  Moscow,  who  feared  this  feeble  khan 
no  longer,  did  not  hesitate  to  take  up  arms,  and  to  expel  his 
rival  from  Vladimir.  A  treaty  was  agreed  on  between  them. 
The  Suzdalian  appanage  of  Nijni-Novgorod  having  become 
vacant,  Dmitri  supported  his  ancient  enemy  against  his  com- 
petitor Boris.  Like  his  grandfather  Kalita,  who  had  caused 
Novgorod  to  be  excommunicated,  Dmitri  Ivanovitch  entreated 
Saint  Sergius,  the  founder  of  the  Troitsa  Monastery,  to  lay 
Nijni-Novgorod  under  an  interdict.  Then  Boris  yielded,  and 
Dmitri  of  Suzdal,  now  Prince  of  Nijni-Novgorod,  gave  the 
Prince  of  Moscow  his  daughter  Evdokia  in  marriage,  and 
henceforward  remained  his  friend.  Dmitri  Ivanovitch  de- 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND   PEINCES   OF   MOSCOW.  199 

prived  the  rebel  princes  of  Starodub  and  Galitch  of  their 
appanages,  and  forced  Konstantin  Borisovitch  to  recognize  his 
supremacy.  He  made,  under  the  guaranty  of  Saint  Alexis, 
a  treaty  with  his  cousin,  Vladimir  Andrievitch,  by  which  he 
undertook  to  hand  over  to  him  the  appanage  that  Kalita  had 
secured  to  his  father,  and  by  which  Vladimir  engaged  to 
acknowledge  him  as  his  father  and  his  Grand  Prince.  Vladi- 
mir kept  his  word,  and  was  always  Dmitri's  bravest  lieutenant 
and  his  right  arm. 

The  struggle  now  recommenced  with  the  house  of  Tver. 
Mikhail  Alexandrovitch,  whose  father  had  been  killed  at  the 
Horde,  disputed  the  throne  with  one  of  his  uncles.  The 
Grand  Prince  and  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow  took  the  part 
of  the  latter.  Mikhail  paid  no  attention  to  this  decision,  took 
Tver  with  a  Lithuanian  army,  besieged  his  uncle  in  Kashin, 
and  obliged  him  to  renounce  his  claims.  He  then  took  the 
title  of  Grand  Prince  of  Tver.  It  was  chiefly  the  alliance 
with  Olgerd,  the  husband  of  his  sister  Juliana,  that  rendered 
him  formidable.  Thrice  —  in  thirteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight,  in  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy-one,  and  in  thirteen 
hundred  and  seventy-two  —  Olgerd  conducted  his  brother- 
in-law,  burning  and  pillaging  on  his  way,  up  to  the  walls  of 
the  Kreml  of  Moscow.  Neither  the  Lithuanian  nor  the  Mus- 
covite army  on  any  of  these  occasions  fought  a  decisive  battle. 
Dmitri's  boyars  felt  that  a  lost  battle  would  be  the  ruin  of 
Russia ;  while  Olgerd  was  too  old  and  experienced  to  stake  all 
on  a  hazard.  At  last,  in  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy-five, 
after  the  death  of  his  brother-in-law,  Mikhail  found  himself 
besieged  in  Tver  by  the  united  forces  of  all  the  vassals  and 
allies  of  Dmitri  and  of  the  Novgorodians  who  had  the  sack  of 
Torjok  and  the  devastation  of  their  territory  to  avenge.  Re- 
duced to  extremities,  and  abandoned  by  Lithuania,  he  was 
constrained  to  sign  a  treaty  by  which  he  engaged  to  regard 
Dmitri  as  his  "  elder  brother,"  to  renounce  all  claim  to  Nov- 
gorod and  Vladimir,  not  to  disquiet  the  allies  of  Moscow,  and 


200  HISTOEY  OP  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

to  imitate  Dmitri's  conduct  towards  the  Tatars,  whether  he 
continued  to  pay  tribute  or  declared  war. 

Another  enemy,  not  less  dangerous,  was  Oleg  of  Riazan, 
who  had  formerly  braved  Ivan  the  Debonair.  In  thirteen 
hundred  and  seventy-one  the  Muscovites  defeated  Oleg  and 
installed  a  prince  of  Pronsk  in  his  capital,  who  was  not, 
however,  strong  enough  to  maintain  his  position.  If  Tver 
was  sometimes  supported  by  Lithuania,  Riazan  had  often  the 
Horde  as  an  ally. 

The  Empire  of  Kiptchak  was  gradually  falling  to  pieces. 
Many  competitors  disputed  the  throne  of  Sarai.  The  Tatars 
acted  after  their  kind,  and  invaded  the  Russian  territory  in 
disorderly  style.  It  is  true  it  was  no  longer  a  point  of  honor 
with  the  Christian  princes  to  submit  to  them.  Oleg  of  Riazan 
himself  united  with  the  princes  of  Pronsk  and  Kozelsk,  and 
defied  the  Tatar  prince  Tagai,  who  had  burnt  Riazan.  Dmitri 
of  Suzdal,  Prince  of  Nijni-Novgorod,  had  defeated  Bulat-Temir, 
who  on  his  return  to  the  Horde  had  been  disavowed  and  put 
to  death.  Finally,  Dmitri  of  Moscow  had  many  times  dis- 
obeyed the  terrible  Mamai.  He  had,  however,  the  courage  to 
answer  to  the  summons  of  the  khan,  and  the  good  fortune  or 
the  cleverness  to  return  to  Moscow  safe  and  well  in  thirteen 
hundred  and  seventy-one.  In  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  Dmitri  sent  a  great  expedition  against  Kazan  by  the  Volga, 
and  forced  two  Tatar  princes  to  pay  tribute.  Conflicts  multi- 
plied between  the  Christians  and  the  infidels.  In  this  man- 
ner the  princes  of  Suzdal  exterminated  a  band  of  Mordva,  and 
delivered  up  their  chiefs  to  be  torn  in  pieces  by  the  dogs  of 
Novgorod ;  in  return,  Mamai  ordered  the  town  to  be  burnt. 
In  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy-eight,  Dmitri  of  Moscow 
gained  a  brilliant  victory  over  Mamai's  lieutenant  on  the 
banks  of  the  Voja  in  Riazan.  In  the  first  intoxication  of 
victory  he  cried,  "  Their  time  is  past,  and  God  is  with  us ! " 
The  khan  in  his  blind  fury  caused  his  anger  to  fall  on  Oleg 
of  Riazan,  the  rival  of  Dmitri  Ivanovitch,  who  fled,  abandon- 
ing his  lands  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy. 


DMITRI  DUNSKOI 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  201 

It  took  Mamai  two  years  to  mature  his  plans  of  vengeance, 
and  he  assembled  in  silence  an  immense  host  of  Tatars,  Turks, 
Polovtsni,  Tcherkesui,  lasui,  and  Burtanians,  or  Caucasian 
Jews.  Even  the  Genoese  of  Kaffa,  settled  in  the  Crimea  and 
on  the  territory  of  the  khan,  furnished  a  contingent.  In  these 
critical  circumstances  for  Russia,  Oleg  of  Riazan,  forgetting 
his  grievances  against  the  Tatars,  and  remembering  only  his 
mistrust  and  jealousy  of  Moscow,  betrayed  the  common  cause. 
While  keeping  on  good  terms  with  Dmitri,  even  while  warn- 
ing him  of  what  was  preparing,  he  secretly  negotiated  an 
alliance  between  the  two  most  formidable  enemies  of  Russia, 
—  lagello  of  Lithuania  and  Mamai.  The  Grand  Prince's 
army  would  probably  be  crushed  between  them ;  but  Dmitri 
did  not  lose  heart.  The  desire  of  vengeance  awakened  in  the 
Russians  with  the  force  of  religious  enthusiasm.  At  the  call 
of  the  Grand  Prince  the  princes  of  Rostof,  Bielozersk,  laro- 
slavl,  Starodub,  and  Kashin,  with  their  drujinui;  the  boyars 
of  Vladimir,  Nijni-Novgorod,  Suzdal,  Pereiaslavl-Zalieski,  Kos- 
troma, Murom,  Dmitrof,  Mojaisk,  Zvenigorod,  Uglitch,  and 
Serpukhof,  at  the  head  of  their  contingents,  successively  made 
their  entrance  into  the  Kreml,  amid  the  acclamations  of  the 
Muscovites.  At  Kostroma,  Dmitri  was  to  be  joined  by  two 
Lithuanian  princes,  —  Andrei  and  Dmitri,  —  who  brought 
him  troops  from  Pskof  and  Briansk.  The  Grand  Prince, 
with  his  cousin  Vladimir,  went  to  the  hermitage  of  Troitsa  to 
ask  the  benediction  of  Saint  Sergius.  The  latter  predicted 
that  he  would  gain  the  victory,  but  that  it  would  be  a  bloody 
fight.  He  sent  two  of  his  monks,  Alexander  Peresvet  and 
Osliaba,  formerly  a  brave  boyar  of  Briansk,  to  accompany 
Dmitri.  On  their  cowls  he  made  the  sign  of  the  cross.  "  Be- 
hold," he  cried,  "  a  weapon  which  never  faileth."  The  Prince 
of  Tver  had  taken  good  care  not  to  send  his  contingent,  and 
the  treason  of  the  Prince  of  Riazan  now  became  known.  The 
hearts  of  the  Russians  beat  with  joy  and  enthusiasm  at  the 
thought  of  revenge.  In  spiter  of  private  jealousies,  the  princes 


202  HISTOEY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

were  animated  by  the  same  ardor  as  the  Spanish  kings  when 
they  marched  against  the  Moors,  or  the  companions  of  Godfrey 
of  Bouillon  on  the  road  for  the  Holy  Land.  Never  had  such 
an  army  been  seen  in  Russia.  Dmitri  is  said  to  have  had 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men. 

They  crossed  the  country  of  Riazan,  then  under  a  craven 
prince,  and  reached  the  banks  of  the  Don.  The  princes  de- 
bated as  to  whether  it  was  necessary  to  cross  the  river  imme- 
diately ;  but  it  was  urgent  to  dispose  of  the  Mongols  before 
having  on  their  hands  lagello,  who  had  already  arrived  at 
Odoef,  fifteen  leagues  off.  A  letter  which  Dmitri  received 
from  Saint  Sergius,  recommending  him  to  "go  forwards," 
decided  the  matter.  The  Don  was  crossed,  and  they  found 
themselves  on  the  plain  of  Kulikovo,  or  the  Field  of  Woodcocks, 
watered  by  the  Nepriadva.  The  centre  was  occupied  by  the 
princes  of  Lithuania  and  Smolensk,  with  Dmitri's  drujina;  the 
right  was  commanded  by  the  princes  of  Rostof  and  Starodub, 
the  left  by  those  of  laroslavl  and  Vologda;  the  reserve  by 
Prince  Vladimir,  the  brave  Dmitri  of  Volhynia,  and  the  princes 
of  Briansk  and  Kashin.  The  Mongols  soon  came  up,  and  the 
battle  began.  It  was  bloody  and  hard  fought.  The  enemy 
had  broken  through  the  Grand  Prince's  drujina  when  Vladimir 
and  Dmitri  of  Volhynia,  who  had  been  lying  in  ambush,  sud- 
denly attacked  the  Tatars.  Mamai,  from  the  top  of  a  funeral 
mound,  contemplated  the  flight  of  his  army.  His  camp,  his 
chariots,  and  his  camels  were  all  captured.  The  Mongols  were 
pursued  to  the  Metcha,  in  which  many  drowned  themselves.  If 
the  barbarians  lost,  as  they  are  said  to  have  done,  a  hundred 
thousand  men,  the  Russian  loss  was  also  very  severe.  They 
counted  among  the  dead  the  two  monks  of  Saint  Sergius ;  one 
of  them,  Peresvet,  was  discovered  in  the  arms  of  a  Petcheneg 
giant,  who  had  fought  with  him  hand  to  hand,  and  perished 
along  with  him.  Fora  long  while  Dmitri  could  not  be  found ; 
at  last  he  was  discovered  in  a  swoon,  his  armor  bloody  and 
broken.  This  memorable  battle  of  Kulikovo  has  been  related 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  203 

in  more  than  one  way  by  the  Russian  historians.  With  the 
annalists,  properly  so  called,  the  Grand  Prince's  official  histo- 
rians, Dmitri  is  the  hero.  In  the  poetical  recitals  which  were 
inspired  by  the  account  of  the  Pope  Sophronius  it  is  Saint  Ser- 
gius  who  at  each  moment  supports  the  courage  of  Dmitri,  whom 
they  represent  with  rather  too  much  humility  for  a  general-in- 
chief.  The  battle  of  the  Don,  which  gained  for  Dmitri  the 
surname  of  Donsko'i  and  for  Vladimir  that  of  the  Brave,  is  as 
celebrated  in  Russia  as  that  of  Las  Navas  de  Tolosa  in  Spain. 
It  showed  the  Russians  that  they  could  vanquish  the  invincible ; 
and  the  Mongol  yoke,  even  after  they  again  fell  under  it,  no 
longer  seemed  unconquerable.  Dmitri  had  heroically  broken 
the  tradition  of  slavery ;  he  had  proclaimed  the  future  freedom. 
Unhappily  the  event  showed  the  advantages  of  the  policy 
of  resignation  over  the  policy  of  chivalry,  —  of  the  patience  of 
the  hero  of  the  Neva  over  the  bravery  of  the  hero  of  the  Don. 
A  man  appeared  at  this  moment  at  the  head  of  the  Mongols 
who  was  as  formidable  as  Genghis  Khan,  —  Tamerlane,  the  con- 
queror of  the  two  Bokharas,  of  Hindostan,  of  Iran,  and  of  Asia 
Minor.  Tokhtamuish,  one  of  his  generals,  caused  Mamai  to 
be  put  to  death,  and  announced  to  Dmitri  that  he  had  tri- 
umphed over  their  common  enemy;  then  he  summoned  the 
Russian  princes  to  present  themselves  at  the  Horde.  Dmitri 
refused.  Was  it  in  vain  that  the  blood  of  the  Christians  had 
flowed  at  Kulikovo  ?  The  khan  assembled  an  immense  army. 
Dmitri  found  no  longer  the  same  wisdom  or  energy  among  his 
councillors.  Not  knowing  what  to  do,  he  left  Moscow  and 
went  to  assemble  an  army  at  Kostroma.  Tokhtamuish  marched 
straight  on  the  capital,  and  during  three  days  tried  to  carry 
the  walls  of  the  Kreml  by  assault.  Then  he  had  recourse  to 
a  ruse,  and  affected  to  enter  into  a  negotiation.  At  last  the 
Tatars  surprised  the  gates  and  delivered  up  Moscow  to  fire 
and  sword.  A  tolerably  exact  calculation  proves  that  twenty- 
four  thousand  men  perished,  besides  the  precious  documents 
and  earliest  archives  of  the  principality. 


204  HISTORY  OP  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

Vladimir,  Mojaisk,  lurief,  and  other  towns  of  Suzdal  suf- 
fered the  same  fate.  When  Tokhtamuish  had  retired,  Dmitri 
came  and  wept  over  the  ruins  of  his  capital.  "  Our  fathers," 
he  cried,  "who  never  triumphed  over  the  Tatars,  were  less 
unhappy  than  we."  Bitter  morrow  of  victory!  However, 
although  Russia  had  to  resign  itself  to  its  Tatar  collectors,  it 
felt  that  the  Horde  would  never  recover  its  former  power. 

Dmitri  longed  at  least  to  avenge  himself  on  the  perfidious 
Oleg.  The  latter  escaped  him,  but  Riazan,  which  was  re- 
garded as  a  harbor  for  traitors,  was  sacked.  Mikhail  of  Tver 
merited  the  same  chastisement ;  he  had  refused  to  fight  Mamai', 
and  was  one  of  the  first  to  fly  to  the  Horde  of  Tokhtamuish. 
The  war  continued  with  Oleg  of  Riazan,  who  ravaged  the 
territory  of  Kolomna.  Saint  Sergius  again  intervened,  en- 
treated and  threatened  Oleg,  and  finally  induced  him  to  con- 
clude a  "  perpetual  peace  "  with  Dmitri,  and  to  cement  it 
by  the  marriage  of  his  son  Feodor  with  Sophia,  daughter  of 
Dmitri. 

The  Novgorod  adventurers,  the  "  Good  Companions,"  had 
about  this  time  committed  many  ravages  on  the  territories  of 
the  Grand  Principalities.  They  insulted  laroslavl  and  Kos- 
troma in  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy-one,  and  Kostroma  and 
Nijni-Novgorod  in  thirteen  hundred  and  seventy-five,  pillaging 
as  far  as  Sarai  and  Astrakhan,  sparing  neither  infidels  nor 
Christians.  Novgorod  continued  to  furnish  appanages  to  the 
Lithuanian  princes,  to  despise  the  political  authority  of  the 
Grand  Prince,  and  the  religious  supremacy  of  the  Metropoli- 
tan. Dmitri  marched  against  the  republic  with  the  contin- 
gents of  twenty-five  provinces.  Novgorod  had  to  pay  an  in- 
demnity for  the  high-handed  deeds  of  the  Good  Companions, 
and  to  engage  to  furnish  a  yearly  tribute. 

When  Dmitri  died,  in  thirteen  hundred  and  eighty-nine, 
the  principality  of  Moscow  was  by  far  the  most  considerable 
of  the  states  of  the  Northeast,  since  it  extended  on  the  south 
to  Kaluga  and  Kasimof,  and  included  on  the  northeast  Bielo- 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND   PRINCES   OF   MOSCOW.  205 

zersk  and  Galitch.  As  to  Vladimir,  Dmitri,  in  his  will,  calls 
it  his  patrimony.  He  has  been  reproached  for  having  limited 
himself  to  the  sack  of  Tver  and  Riazan  without  hastening 
their  final  annexation.  If  Dmitri  gave  appanages  to  his  five 
younger  sons,  he  at  least  established  the  principle  of  inherit- 
ance in  a  direct  line  instead  of  the  ancient  principle  of  collat- 
eral succession.  He  had  signed  a  treaty  with  his  cousin 
Vladimir,  by  which  the  latter  renounced  his  rights  as  "  eldest 
of  the  family,"  engaging  to  consider  Vasili,  eldest  son  of 
Dmitri,  as  his  "  elder  brother."  In  the  reign  of  Donsko'i  the 
monk  Stephen  founded  the  first  church  in  the  country  of 
the  Permians,  confuted  their  priests  and  sorcerers,  overthrew 
the  idols  of  Voissel  and  the  Old  Golden  Woman  who  held 
two  infants  in  her  arms,  put  a  stop  to  the  sacrifice  of  reindeer, 
built  schools,  and  died  Bishop  of  Permia.  A  certain  Andrei, 
probably  a  Genoese  by  birth,  settled  on  the  Petchora.  Russia 
entered  into  relations  with  the  West  by  means  of  the  Genoese 
of  KafFa  and  Azof ;  coins  of  silver  and  copper,  with  the  image 
of  a  knight,  replaced  the  marten-skins.  About  thirteen  hun- 
dred and  eighty-nine  the  first  cannons  appeared  in  the  Russian 
army.  Moscow  continued  to  be  beautified,  and  the  monasteries 
of  the  Miracle,  of  Andronii,  and  of  Simeon  were  built. 

VASILI  DMITRlfivrrCH  AND  VASILI  THE  BLIND. 

In  thirteen  hundred  and  eighty-nine  Vasili  Dmitrievitch, 
the  contemporary  of  Charles  the  Sixth  of  France,  succeeded 
his  father  without  opposition  as  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  and 
Vladimir.  The  preponderance  of  the  first  of  these  towns  over 
the  second  became  more  and  more  marked.  The  situation  of 
both  was  equally  advantageous,  —  the  one  on  the  Moskova,  the 
other  on  the  Kliazma,  affluents  of  the  Oka.  Vladimir,  like 
Moscow,  had  its  kreml  on  a  high  hill,  commanding  a  vast 
extent  of  country.  Both  cities  were  in  communication  with 
the  great  Russian  artery,  the  Volga ;  but  were  far  enough  from 


206  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

it  to  escape  the  piracies  of  the  Good  Companions.  Vladimir 
had  been  in  other  respects  as  favored  as  Moscow.  Andrei 
Bogoliubski  had  ornamented  the  former,  as  Ivan  Kalita  had 
embellished  the  second.  Vladimir,  to  which  the  title  of 
Grand  Principality  was  attached,  seemed  even  better  fitted 
than  Moscow  to  be  the  capital  of  Russia.  It  was  almost  an 
historical  accident  that  decided  in  favor  of  the  latter.  At  the 
present  day  Vladimir  is  merely  a  simple  seat  of  government 
with  a  population  of  fourteen  thousand,  while  Moscow  is  a 
metropolis  with  six  hundred  thousand  souls. 

With  regard  to  Novgorod,  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow 
began  to  look  upon  it  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  sovereign, 
and  called  the  city  "  his  patrimony."  The  Novgorodians  on 
their  side  appealed  to  the  charter  of  laroslaf  the  Great,  which 
formally  conceded  them  the  right  to  choose  their  princes.  In 
the  last  reigns  they  had  been  accustomed  to  have  recourse 
to  a  bargain.  The  republicans  recognized  the  sovereign  of 
Moscow  as  their  prince,  if  the  latter  would  consent  to  certain 
conditions,  —  the  final  homage  rendered  to  the  ancient  Slav 
freedom.  After  the  fall  of  Alexander  of  Tver,  in  thirteen 
hundred  and  twenty-eight,  no  Russian  prince  could  compete 
with  the  house  of  Moscow  for  the  throne  of  Novgorod.  The 
only  possible  rivals  were  the  Grand  Princes  of  Lithuania. 
But  with  Lithuania  it  was  not  only  a  competition  of  candi- 
dates, but  it  was  a  great  national  and  religious  question.  It 
would  be  more  advantageous  for  Moscow  to  ruin  Novgorod 
than  to  allow  it  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  most  danger- 
ous enemy  of  Russian  orthodoxy.  We  may  say  that  after  thir- 
teen hundred  and  twenty-eight  Novgorod  had  no  longer  a 
special  prince,  but  only  a  boyar  of  Moscow,  who  represented 
the  Grand  Prince.  The  power  of  the  latter  was  sometimes 
exerted  with  severity.  In  thirteen  hundred  and  ninety-three, 
Novgorod  having  revolted  against  Moscow,  Vasili  sent  in  his 
troops,  and  seventy  inhabitants  of  Torjok,  accused  of  having 
put  to  death  one  of  his  men,  were  cut  to  pieces. 


1303-1462.]     THE   GEAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  207 

Thus  Vasili  Dmitrievitch,  on  his  accession  to  the  throne, 
found  his  power  considerably  strengthened,  since  Vladimir  on 
the  Kliazma  and  Novgorod  the  Great,  the  objects  of  so  many 
bloody  contests  with  the  Russian  princes,  had  in  some  ways 
already  become  integral  parts  of  his  dominions.  If  he  went 
to  the  Horde  in  thirteen  hundred  and  ninety-two,  it  was  less 
to  obtain  the  confirmation  of  this  triple  crown  than  to  acquire 
new  territories.  From  the  Khan  Tokhtamuish  he  bought  a 
iarluik,  which  put  him  in  possession  of  the  three  appanages 
of  Murom,  Nijni-Novgorod,  and  Suzdal.  The  boyars  of 
Moscow  and  the  ambassador  of  the  khan  betook  themselves 
to  Nijni.  Boris,  the  last  titular  prince  of  the  two  latter 
appanages,  was  betrayed  by  his  men,  who  persuaded  him 
to  open  the  gates,  and  delivered  him  up  to  the  soldiers  of 
the  Grand  Prince.  Then,  with  the  ringing  of  all  the  bells 
in  the  town,  Vasili  of  Moscow  was  proclaimed  Prince  of  Nijni 
and  Suzdal. 

This  prince,  who  lived  on  such  good  terms  with  the  Horde, 
was  witness,  however,  of  two  Tatar  invasions  of  Russia.  Tam- 
erlane, conqueror  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  at  Ancyra,  attacked 
his  old  favorite,  Tokhtamuish,  and  pillaged  the  Golden  Horde. 
He  continued  to  move  towards  the  West,  putting  the  Russian 
territory  to  fire  and  sword.  Moscow  was  threatened  with  an 
invasion  as  terrible  as  that  of  Batui.  The  famous  Virgin  of 
Vladimir,  brought  by  Andrei  Bogoliubski  from  Vuishegorod, 
was  taken  solemnly  to  Moscow.  The  Tatars  reached  Elets 
on  the  Don,  and  made  its  princes  prisoners.  There  they 
stopped,  and  suddenly  retreated.  Accustomed  to  the  rich 
booty  of  'Bokhara  and  Hindostan,  and  dreaming  of  Constan- 
tinople and  Egypt,  they  found,  no  doubt,  that  the  desert 
steppes  and  deep  forests  offered  only  a  very  meagre  prey. 
They  indemnified  themselves  by  the  pillage  of  Azof,  where 
Egyptian,  Venetian,  Genoese,  Catalan,  and  Biscayan  merchants 
had  accumulated  great  wealth,  and  by  the  destruction  of 
Astrakhan  and  Sarai  in  thirteen  hundred  and  ninety-five. 


208  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

The  irruption  of  Tamerlane  resulted  in  the  more   rapid 
dissolution  of  the  Golden  Horde.     We  have  seen  that  Vitovt 
took  advantage  of  it  to  organize  against   the  Mongols  his 
great  crusade  of  the  Vorskla  in  thirteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine.     Vasili  Dmitrievitch  had  taken  good  care  not  to  inter- 
fere  in   the   war   between    Lithuania   and   Kiptchak.      His 
Western  neighbors  appeared  to  him  more  dangerous  than 
those  of  the  East :  with  the  latter  the  payment  of  the  tribute 
still  sufficed ;  with  the  former  the  stake  was  the  existence  of 
Russia.     Vasili  profited  by  the  defeat  of  the  one  and  the  dis- 
organization of  the  other,  and  was  careful  to  irritate  neither 
party.   As  the  Horde  was  then  disputed  by  many  competitors, 
he  forbore  to  pay  the  tribute,  affecting  not  to  know  which 
was  the  legitimate  khan.     Ediger,  the  vanquisher  of  Vitovt, 
resolved  to  reduce  the  Russian  vassals  to  obedience.      He 
lulled  the  prudence  of  the  Muscovites  to  rest  by  spreading 
the  rumor  that  he  was  assembling  troops  for  a  war  against 
Lithuania.     Suddenly  they  heard  that  he  had  entered  the 
Grand  Principality.     Vasili  imitated  his  father's  conduct  in 
similar  circumstances.     He  retired  to  Kostroma  to  assemble 
an  army,  and  confided  the  defence  of  Moscow  to  Vladimir  the 
Brave.     Defended  by  artillery,  the  Kreml  could  withstand 
the  attack  of  a  large  force,  but  the  dense  population  caused 
fears  of  famine.     Ediger  burnt  the  towns  in  the  flat  country 
while  blockading  Moscow.     Ivan,  Prince  of  Tver,  showed  on 
this  occasion  more  greatness  of  soul  and  political  wisdom  than 
his  father  Mikhail.     He  abstained  from  coming  to  the  help  of 
the  Tatars  against  his  formidable  suzerain.     In  these  circum- 
stances Ediger  learned  that  his  master  Bulat  himself  feared  an 
attack  at  the  Horde  by  his  Oriental  enemies.     To  cover  his 
forced  retreat  he  addressed  a  haughty  letter  to  the    Grand 
Prince,  summoning  him  to  pay  tribute ;  and  obtained  three 
thousand  rubles  from  the  Muscovite  boyars  as  a  war  indemnity 
in  fourteen  hundred  and  eight. 

Vitovt  of  Lithuania,  whose  daughter  Sophia  Vasili   had 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND   PRINCES   OF   MOSCOW.  209 

married,  was  a  still  more  dangerous  enemy.  Great  caution 
was  necessary  in  all  dealings  with  him.  Vasili  saw  the  hand 
of  his  father-in-law  in  the  troubles  of  Novgorod,  and  every- 
where else;  at  Pskof,  where  Vitovt  had  taken  the  title  of 
Grand  Prince ;  at  Smolensk,  which  he  had  united  to  Lithu- 
ania ;  at  Tver,  where  he  supported  Mikhail  against  the  Grand 
Prince.  Like  Olgerd,  Vitovt  marched  thrice  against  Moscow. 
Each  of  the  two  rivals  had  too  many  other  enemies  to  dispose 
of,  to  risk  in  one  battle  the  fortunes  of  Moscow  or  Lithuania. 
In  fourteen  hundred  and  eight  they  signed  a  treaty  by  which 
the  Ugra  was  fixed  on  as  the  limit  of  the  two  Grand  Prin- 
cipalities, leaving  Smolensk  to  Vitovt,  and  restoring  Kozelsk 
to  Russia.  Besides  Murom  and  Suzdal,  Vasili  had  united  to 
his  domains  many  appanages  of  the  country  of  Tchernigof, 
such  as  Torusa,  Novosil,  Kozelsk,  and  Peremuisl.  In  the 
quarrels  with  Novgorod,  generally  occasioned  by  the  exploits 
of  the  Good  Companions  or  by  commercial  rivalry,  he  had 
appropriated  vast  territories  on  the  Dwina;  among  others, 
Vologda.  In  an  expedition  against  the  republic  of  Viatka  he 
had  reduced  it  to  submission  and  made  one  of  his  brothers 
its  prince.  He  had  imposed  a  treaty  on  Feodor  Olgovitch, 
Prince  of  Riazan,  by  which  the  latter  undertook  to  look  on 
him  as  a  father,  and  to  make  no  alliances  to  his  hurt.  Vasili 
on  his  side  ceded  to  him  Tula  and  the  title  of  Grand  Prince. 
The  Oka  formed  the  boundary  of  the  two  states.  He  made, 
no  doubt,  a  similar  treaty  with  Ivan,  Prince  of  Tver.  One  of 
his  daughters  had  married  the  Emperor  John  Palseologus. 

The  reign  of  Vasili  the  Blind,  from  fourteen  hundred  and 
twenty-five  until  fourteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  contempo- 
rary with  Charles  the  Seventh  of  France,  marks  a  pause  in 
the  development  of  the  Grand  Principality.  A  civil  war  of 
twenty  years  broke  out  in  the  bosom  of  Donsko'i's  family.  One 
of  his  sons,  George,  or  luri,  whom  he  had  made  Prince  of 
Rusa  and  Zvenigorod,  attempted  to  revert  to  the  ancient 
national  law,  and  invoked  his  right  as  "  eldest "  against  his 

VOL.  I.  14 


210  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

nephew,  Vasili  Vasilievitch.  Vasili's  other  uncles  declared  in 
favor  of  the  young  prince.  In  fourteen  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  it  was  necessary  to  carry  the  dispute  to  the  Horde.  Each 
of  the  two  parties  set  forth  his  right  to  the  Khan  Ulu-Makh- 
met.  Vsevolojski,  a  boyar  of  the  Prince  of  Moscow,  found  the 
best  of  arguments  for  his  master.  "  My  Lord  Tsar,"  he  said 
to  Makhmet,  "  let  me  speak,  —  me,  the  slave  of  the  Grand 
Prince.  My  master  the  Grand  Prince  prays  for  the  throne  of 
the  Grand  Principality,  which  is  thy  property,  having  no  other 
title  but  thy  protection,  thy  investiture,  and  thy  iarluik.  Thou 
art  master  and  canst  dispose  of  it  according  to  thy  good  pleas- 
ure. My  lord  the  Prince  luri  Dmitrievitch,  his  uncle,  claims 
the  Grand  Principality  by  the  act  and  the  will  of  his  father, 
but  not  as  a  favor  from  the  All-powerful."  In  this  contest  of 
baseness  the  prize  was  adjudged  to  the  Prince  of  Moscow.  The 
khan  ordered  luri  to  lead  his  nephew's  horse  by  the  bridle. 
A  Tatar  baskak  was  present  at  the  coronation  of  the  Grand 
Prince,  which  took  place,  for  the  first  time,  not  at  Vladimir, 
but  at  the  Assumption  in  Moscow.  From  this  time  Vladimir 
lost  its  privilege  as  the  capital,  although,  in  the  enumeration 
of  the  titles,  the  Grand  Princes  continued  to  inscribe  the  name 
of  Vladimir  before  that  of  Moscow. 

Vasili  owed  his  throne  to  the  clever  boyar,  Vsevolojski. 
He  had  promised  to  marry  his  daughter,  but  his  own  mother, 
Sophia,  the  proud  Lithuanian  daughter  of  the  great  Vitovt, 
made  him  contract  an  alliance  with  the  Princess  Maria,  grand- 
daughter of  Vladimir  the  Brave.  The  irritated  boyar  left 
Vasili's  service  and  retired  to  his  enemy,  luri,  whose  resent- 
ment against  his  nephew  he  fanned.  Another  circumstance 
exasperated  luri ;  his  two  sons,  Vasili  Kosoi,  or  the  Squinting, 
and  Shemiaka,  were  attending  the  Grand  Prince's  marriage. 
The  Princess  Sophia  recognized  round  the  waist  of  Vasili  Kosoi 
a  belt  of  gold  which  had  belonged  to  Dmitri  Donskoi.  She 
had  the  imprudence  publicly  and  with  open  scandal  to  take 
it  from  the  son  of  luri.  On  this  affront  the  two  princes  at 


1303-1462.]     THE   GRAND   PRINCES   OF   MOSCOW.  211 

once  left  the  banqueting-hall  and  retired  to  their  father.  The 
latter  instantly  took  up  arms  and  departed  for  Pereiaslavl. 
The  Prince  of  Moscow  with  difficulty  assembled  a  few  troops, 
and  fell  into  his  uncle's  hands  at  Kostroma  in  fourteen  hun- 
dred and  thirty-three.  Vasili  tried  in  vain  to  soften  him  by 
his  tears.  The  Kosoi  and  Shemiaka  wished  their  prisoner  to 
be  put  to  death,  but  by  the  self-interested  counsel  of  the  boyar 
Morozof,  luri  allowed  his  nephew  to  live,  and  gave  him  the 
appanage  of  Kostroma,  while  he  took  for  himself  the  Grand 
Principality.  The  affection  of  the  Muscovites  for  their  prince 
was  so  great  that  they  abandoned  their  city  in  a  body,  and 
crowded  into  Kostroma.  luri  saw  that  his  nephew  was  still 
powerful,  reproached  Morozof  for  his  perfidious  advice,  and 
had  him  stabbed  by  his  two  sons.  "  Thou  hast  ruined  our 
father,"  they  said.  The  usurper  was  indeed  unable  to  remain 
in  Moscow,  and  sent  to  tell  his  nephew  he  might  come  and 
take  possession  of  it.  The  boyars  pressed  around  Vasili  on 
his  return  to  his  capital  "as  bees  press  around  their  queen." 
The  war,  however,  continued :  thanks  to  Vasili's  cowardice, 
luri  again  took  the  Kreml,  and  made  the  wife  and  mother  of 
the  Grand  Prince  prisoners,  while  Vasili  Kosoi  and  Shemiaka 
occupied  Vladimir  and  marched  on  Nijni-Novgorod. 

luri  had  hardly  been  recognized  as  Grand  Prince  of  Nov- 
gorod when  he  died  suddenly.  His  sons  then  made  peace 
with  Vasili,  but  immediately  took  up  arms  again.  In  one  of 
the  many  reverses  of  this  civil  war  Vasili  Kosoi  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Grand  Prince,  who  in  fourteen  hundred  and 
thirty-six  had  his  eyes  put  out  in  an  excess  of  fury.  Then,  by 
one  of  those  changes  common  to  violent  and  impulsive  natures, 
he  passed  from  anger  to  dismay  ;  and  to  atone  for  his  crime 
against  his  cousin  set  free  Shemiaka,  whom  he  had  made  pris- 
oner at  the  same  time.  Shemiaka  promised  to  serve  him,  but 
served  him  very  badly.  In  a  battle  with  the  Tatars  his  deser- 
tion caused  the  rout  of  the  Russian  army  at  the  siege  of  Bielef, 
in  Lithuania.  In  fourteen  hundred  and  forty-one  the  war 


212  HISTORY   OF   RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

began  again  between  the  Grand  Prince  and  Shemiaka.  The 
latter,  with  some  thousands  of  Free-lances  and  Good  Com- 
panions, suddenly  undertook  the  siege  of  Moscow.  Zenobius, 
superior  of  the  Troitsa  monastery,  succeeded  once  more  in 
reconciling  them.  Shemiaka  displayed  his  ordinary  duplicity 
on  the  occasion  of  a  military  incursion  of  the  Tatars  of  Kazan. 
The  Grand  Prince  waited  in  vain  for  the  help  that  had  been 
promised  him,  and  it  was  with  only  fifteen  hundred  men  that 
he  finally  took  the  field,  so  much  had  the  discords  between  the 
descendants  of  Dmitri  Donskoi  weakened  the  Grand  Princi- 
pality, loosened  the  ties  of  obedience  among  the  vassals,  and 
degraded  that  Russia  which  had  armed  one  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  men  against  Mamai.  Vasili,  covered  with  fifteen 
wounds,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  barbarians,  and  was  carried 
prisoner  to  Kazan. 

Moscow  was  in  despair.  The  Prince  of  Tver  insulted  its 
territory ;  Shemiaka  was  intriguing  at  the  Horde  to  get  him- 
self nominated  Grand  Prince.  All  at  once  the  Tsar  of  Kazan 
took  it  into  his  head  to  liberate  his  prisoners  for  a  small  ran- 
som. Vasili  re-entered  his  capital  amid  the  acclamations  of 
his  people.  Shemiaka  had  done  enough  to  fear  the  vengeance 
of  the  Grand  Prince  ;  in  the  interests  of  his  own  safety  Vasili 
must  be  overthrown.  Following  the  example  of  his  father 
and  grandfather,  Vasili  went  to  the  Troitsa  monastery  to 
return  thanks  to  Saint  Sergius  for  his  deliverance.  He  had 
few  companions,  and  Shemiaka  and  his  associates  surprised 
the  Kreml  in  his  absence,  and  captured  his  wife,  his  mother, 
and  his  treasures.  Then  he  flew  to  Troitsa,  where  his  accom- 
plice, Ivan  of  Mojaisk,  discovered  the  Grand  Prince,  who  had 
taken  refuge  in  the  principal  church  near  the  tomb  of  Saint 
Sergius.  He  was  brought  back  to  Moscow,  and  ten  years 
after  the  punishment  of  Vasili  Kosoi,  Shemiaka  avenged  his 
brother  by  putting  out  the  eyes  of  the  Grand  Prince,  in  four- 
teen hundred  and  forty-six. 

During  his  short  reign  at  Moscow   Shemiaka  had  made 


1303-1462.]     THE   GEAND   PEINCES   OF   MOSCOW.  213 

himself  hated  by  the  people  and  the  boyars,  who  were  faithful 
from  the  bottom  of  their  hearts  to  their  unhappy  prince.  In 
the  popular  language  a  "judgment  of  Shemiaka"  became  the 
synonyme  of  a  crying  wrong.  Soon  Vasili's  partisans  assem- 
bled their  troops  in  Lithuania,  joined  those  of  the  two  Tatar 
princes,  and  marched  against  the  usurper.  At  this  epoch 
Russia  was  infested  by  armed  bands,  the  relics  of  the  great 
Tatar  and  Lithuanian  wars,  Lithuanian  adventurers,  young 
nobles  banished  from  the  Horde,  Novgorodian  Good  Com- 
panions, Free-lances  of  all  races.  They  ravaged  the  flat  coun- 
try, attacked  the  strongest  towns,  and  their  chiefs  sometimes 
created  ephemeral  principalities  for  themselves.  As  the  Asiatic 
element  predominated  in  them,  they  might  be  termed  Great 
Mongol  Companies,  analogous  to  the  Great  English  or  the 
French  Companies  that,  about  the  year  fourteen  hundred  and 
forty-four,  Charles  the  Seventh  sent  to  Alsace  and  Switzerland. 
Serving  Shemiaka  or  the  Grand  Prince  indiscriminately,  they 
did  their  best  to  perpetuate  the  quarrel.  Shemiaka  wished  to 
march  against  his  enemies ;  but  hardly  had  he  left  Moscow 
ere  he  saw  the  city  revolt  and  Vasili  enter  in  triumph.  She- 
miaka fled,  and  accepted  a  reconciliation  with  his  victim  in 
fourteen  hundred  and  forty-seven.  Incapable  of  repose,  he 
again  took  up  arms,  was  completely  defeated  near  Galitch  by 
the  Muscovites  and  Tatars  in  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty,  and 
fled  to  Novgorod,  where  he  is  said  to  have  died  three  years 
after  by  poison.  All  his  appanages  were  reunited  to  the  royal 
domain. 

Freed  from  this  dangerous  enemy,  Vasili  the  Blind  hastened 
to  take  up  the  work  of  his  predecessors.  Novgorod  had  not 
ceased  to  give  asylum  to  his  enemies,  to  despise  the  author- 
ity of  his  lieutenants,  to  contest  his  right  of  final  appeal  and 
the  supremacy  of  the  Metropolitan.  A  Muscovite  army  re- 
duced the  town  to  terms  ;  it  was  forced  to  annul  all  the  acts 
of  the  vetche  which  tended  to  limit  the  authority  of  the  Grand 
Prince,  to  pay  him  a  heavy  indemnity,  and  to  promise  to  im- 


214  HISTOEY   OP  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XII. 

pose  the  seal  of  Vasili  alone  on  its  deeds.  Pskof  received  one 
of  his  sons  as  its  prince.  The  republic  of  Viatka  had  to  pay 
tribute,  and  to  furnish  a  military  contingent.  The  Prince  of 
Riazan  having  just  died,  Vasili  took  his  young  heir  to  Mos- 
cow, under  pretence  of  bringing  him  up,  and  sent  his  lieuten- 
ant to  govern  the  appanage.  Vasili  of  Borovsk,  grandson  of 
Vladimir  the  Brave,  had  rendered  him  important  services,  but 
none  the  less  was  he  imprisoned,  and  his  possessions  swal- 
lowed up  in  the  Grand  Principality.  The  authority  of  the 
Grand  Prince  began  to  be  exercised  on  his  subordinates  with 
new  rigor;  and  against  the  rebels,  real  or  supposed,  the 
knout,  tortures,  mutilations,  and  refined  horrors  were  used. 
Vasili,  who  had  suffered  so  much  from  the  appanaged  princes 
luri  and  Shemiaka,  and  who  was  so  energetic  in  destroying 
the  appanages  around  him,  could  not  free  himself  from  the 
yoke  of  custom,  and  began  to  dismember  the  principality 
which  he  had  aggrandized,  in  favor  of  his  four  younger  sons. 
However,  to  avoid  all  contests  about  the  title  of  Grand  Prince, 
and  to  insure  the  succession  of  the  direct  line,  he  had,  since 
the  year  fourteen  hundred  and  forty-nine,  associated  with 
himself  his  eldest  son,  Ivan. 

Memorable  events  had  agitated  the  orthodox  world  during 
his  reign.  In  fourteen  hundred  and  thirty-nine  the  Pope 
Eugenius  the  Fourth  assembled  the  Council  of  Florence  to 
discuss  the  union  of  the  two  Churches.  The  Greek  Emperor, 
John  Palasologus,  who  hoped  to  obtain  the  help  of  the  Pope 
against  the  Ottomans,  had  sent  the  bishops  of  his  communion  ; 
Isidor,  Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  was  also  present.  It  was  in 
vain  that  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  three  vicars  of  the 
Patriarchs  of  the  East,  seventeen  metropolitans,  and  a  multi- 
tude of  bishops  signed  the  act  of  union.  The  Greek  world 
listened  to  the  energetic  protest  of  Mark,  the  old  bishop  of 
Ephesus,  and  rejected  the  union  with  Rome.  But  Isidor 
announced  at  Kief  and  Moscow  that  he  had  signed  the  act 
of  reconciliation ;  the  appearance  of  the  Latin  cross  at  the 


METROPOLITAN    OF    MOSCOW. 


1303-1462.]     THE   GEAND  PRINCES  OF  MOSCOW.  215 

Assumption  in  the  Kreml,  the  name  of  Pope  Eugeriius  in  the 
public  prayers,  and  the  reading  of  the  formal  document,  as- 
tonished the  Russians.  Vasili,  who  piqued  himself  on  his 
theology,  also  raised  his  voice,  began  a  polemic  against  Isidor, 
and  so  overwhelmed  him  with  insults,  that  the  "  false  shep- 
herd "  thought  it  prudent  to  take  refuge  in  Rome.  This 
check  to  the  union  heralded  the  fall  of  the  Greek  Empire. 
In  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty-three  Mahomet  the  Second 
entered  Constantinople.  There  was  no  longer  a  Christian 
Tsar;  Moscow  became  the  great  metropolis  of  orthodoxy, 
since  it  was  the  heir  of  Constantinople.  Soon  the  monks,  the 
artists,  the  literary  men,  of  Constantinople  were  to  bring  to 
Moscow  as  well  as  to  the  rest  of  Europe  the  Renaissance. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

IVAN  THE  GREAT,  THE  AUTHOR  OF  RUSSIAN 

UNITY. 

1462-1505. 

SUBMISSION  OF  NOVGOROD. — KEUNION  OF  TVER,  EOSTOF,  AND  IAROSLAVL.  . 

—  WARS  WITH   THE    GREAT    HORDE   AND    KAZAN.  —  END    OF   THE 
TATAR  YOKE.  —  WARS  WITH  LITHUANIA.  —  WESTERN  RUSSIA  AS  FAR 
AS  THE  SOJA  RECONQUERED.  —  MARRIAGE  WITH  SOPHIA  PAL^EOLOGUS. 

—  GREEKS  AND  ITALIANS  AT  THE  COURT  OF  Moscow. 


SUBMISSION  OF  NOVGOKOD.  —  REUNION  OF  TVER,  ROSTOF, 
AND  IAROSLAVL. 

AT  the  death  of  Vasili  the  Blind  Russia  was  contained  be- 
tween the  great  Lithuanian  Empire  and  the  vast  posses- 
sions of  the  Mongols.  To  the  north  it  had  two  restless  neigh- 
bors, the  Livonian  Order  and  Sweden.  In  spite  of  the  labors 
of  eight  Muscovite  princes,  the  little  Russian  state  could  not 
yet  make  its  unity  a  fact ;  Riazan  and  Tver,  though  weak- 
ened, still  existed.  Novgorod  and  Pskof  hesitated  between 
the  Grand  Princes  of  Moscow  and  Lithuania.  The  heirs  of 
Kalita,  by  creating  new  appanages,  incessantly  destroyed  the 
unity  which  they  had  brought  about  by  means  of  a  pitiless 
policy.  Moscow,  which  is  bounded  by  no  sea,  had  only  in- 
termittent relations  with  the  centres  of  European  civilization. 
It  was,  however,  the  time  when  the  nations  of  the  West  began 
to  be  organized.  Charles  the  Seventh  and  Louis  the  Eleventh 
in  France,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  in  Spain,  the  Tudors  in 
England,  Frederick  the  Third  and  Maximilian  in  Austria, 
labored  to  build  up  powerful  states  from  the  ruins  of  feudal 


I  VAX  THE  ( i  UK  AT 


1462-1505.]  IVAN  THE   GREAT.  217 

anarchy.  European  civilization  took  an  unprecedented  start ; 
the  Renaissance  began,  the  art  of  printing  spread,  Christo- 
pher Columbus  and  Vasco  da  Gama  discovered  new  worlds. 
Was  not  Russia  also  going  to  achieve  its  unity,  to  take  part 
in  the  great  European  movement  ?  The  man  who  was  to 
restore  this  country  to  itself,  to  free  it  from  the  Mongol  yoke, 
to  bring  it  into  relations  with  the  West,  —  this  man  was 
expected.  His  coming  had  been  predicted.  When  a  son 
named  loann,  or  Ivan,  was  born  in  fourteen  hundred  and 
forty  to  Vasili  the  Blind,  an  old  monk  had  a  revelation  about 
it  in  Novgorod  the  Great.  He  came  and  said  to  his  arch- 
bishop :  "  Truly  it  is  to-day  that  the  Grand  Prince  triumphs ; 
God  has  given  him  an  heir;  I  behold  this  child  making 
himself  illustrious  by  glorious  deeds.  He  will  subdue  princes 
and  peoples.  But,  alas  for  us !  Novgorod  will  fall  at  his 
feet,  never  to  rise  again." 

Ivan  the  Third,  whose  reign  of  forty -three  years  was  to  per- 
mit him  to  realize  the  expectations  of  Russia,  was  a  cold,  im- 
perious, calculating  prince,  the  very  type  of  the  Suzdalian  and 
Muscovite  princes.  Disliking  war,  he  allowed  doubts  to  be 
thrown  upon  his  courage.  He  was  victorious  in  Lithuania,  in 
Livonia  and  Siberia,  almost  without  leaving  the  Kreml.  His 
father  had  taken  long  journeys,  and  had  met  with  many  sad 
adventures,  but  Stephen  of  Moldavia  said  of  Ivan  :  "  Ivan  is 
a  strange  man ;  he  stays  quietly  at  home  and  triumphs  over 
his  enemies,  while  I,  though  always  on  horseback,  cannot 
defend  my  country."  It  was  precisely  the  verdict  of  Edward 
the  Third  on  Charles  the  Fifth.  Ivan  exhausted  his  enemies 
by  negotiations  and  delay,  and  never  employed  force  till  it 
was  absolutely  necessary.  His  devotion  was  mixed  with 
hypocrisy.  He  wept  for  his  relatives  whom  he  put  to  death, 
as  Louis  the  Eleventh  bewailed  the  Duke  of  Guienne.  Born 
a  despot,  "he  had  penetrated  the  secret  of  autocracy,"  says 
Karamsin,  "  and  became  a  formidable  deity  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Russians."  His  glance  caused  women  to  faint.  When  he 


218  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

slept  after  his  meals,  it  was  wonderful  to  see  the  frightened 
respect  of  the  boyars  for  the  sleep  of  the  master.  He  was 
prodigal  of  punishments  and  tortures  to  his  boyars,  even  to 
those  of  the  highest  rank ;  he  mutilated  the  counsellors  of  his 
son,  whipped  Prince  Ukhtomski  and  the  archimandrite  of  a 
powerful  monastery,  and  burned  alive  two  Poles  in  an  iron 
cage  on  the  Moskova  for  having  conspired  against  him.  He 
had  already  won  the  surname  of  "  Terrible,"  which  his  grand- 
son was  to  bear  even  more  justly. 

Ivan's  first  effort  was  directed  against  Novgorod  the  Great. 
The  republic  of  the  Ilmen  was  dying  in  the  anarchy  of  the 
aristocracy,  the  dissensions  of  the  people,  the  Church,  and  es- 
pecially of  the  boyars.  It  is  of  this  epoch  that  M.  Bielaef  has 
said,  that  "  parties  in  Novgorod  had  become  so  complicated 
that  often  it  is  difficult  to  perceive  from  what  motive  this  or 
that  faction  excited  troubles  and  revolts."  They  thought  them- 
selves able  to  despise  the  authority  of  a  new  prince,  and  had  the 
imprudence  to  neglect  the  complaints  and  suggestions  made 
in  a  tolerably  moderate  tone  by  Ivan  the  Third.  He  then 
signified  to  the  Pskovians  that  they  would  have  to  second  him 
in  an  expedition  against  the  rebels.  This  the  Pskovians  did 
not  wish  to  do,  foreseeing  that  the  fall  of  Novgorod  would 
drag  them  down  also.  They  offered  their  mediation  to  their 
"  elder  sister,"  but  it  was  rejected,  and  they  were  obliged  to 
proceed.  Ivan  the  Third  received,  however,  Theophilus,  the 
Archbishop  of  Novgorod,  many  times  at  Moscow,  and  con- 
tinued to  negotiate.  He  had  a  large  party  in  Novgorod,  but 
the  opposing  faction  was  the  boldest.  Marfa,  the  widow  of 
the  posadnik  Boretski,  mother  of  two  grown-up  sons,  put  her- 
self at  the  head  of  the  anti-Muscovite  party.  Ready  speech, 
immense  wealth,  and  an  audacity  equal  to  everything,  had 
given  her  a  great  influence  with  the  people  and  the  boyars. 
This  intrepid  woman  was  the  last  incarnation  of  Novgorodian 
liberty.  To  save  the  republic,  Marfa  wished  to  put  it  into 
the  hands  of  the  King  of  Poland,  Kasimir  the  Fourth.  She 


1462-1505.]  IVAN   THE   GREAT.  219 

desired  also  that  the  Archbishop  of  Novgorod  should  be  nomi- 
nated by  the  Metropolitan  of  Kief,  not  by  the  Metropolitan  of 
Moscow.  In  her  devotion  to  Novgorod  she  thus  betrayed  the 
cause  of  Russia  and  orthodoxy.  The  sittings  of  the  vetche, 
between  the  opposition  of  the  two  parties,  degenerated  into 
violent  tumults.  Some  cried,  "  The  king  ! "  others,  "  Long 
live  orthodox  Moscow !  Long  live  the  Grand  Prince  Ivan  and 
our  father  the  Metropolitan  Philip  !  "  The  friends  of  Marfa 
finally  won  the  day.  Novgorod  was  handed  over  to  the  King 
of  Poland  by  a  formal  act,  by  which  the  same  conditions  were 
stipulated  as  in  its  pacts  with  the  ancient  princes.  Ivan  the 
Third  tried  once  more  to  recall  the  citizens  to  obedience,  and 
sent  them  an  ambassador,  but  Marfa's  party  was  always  the 
most  numerous  or  the  most  noisy.  At  last  Ivan  decided  to 
begin  the  war.  The  contingent  made  the  conquest  of  the 
territory  of  the  Dwina;  the  Muscovites,  supported  by  the 
Tatar  cavalry,  cruelly  ravaged  the  territory  of  the  "  perfidious  " 
Novgorodians ;  after  the  battle  of  Korostuin  they  cut  off 
the  noses  and  lips  of  the  prisoners.  The  republicans  had 
fallen  from  their  ancient  valor :  Marfa  had  hastily  enrolled  ill- 
disciplined  artisans.  At  the  battle  of  the  Shelona  five  thou- 
sand Muscovites  defeated  thirty  thousand  Novgorodians.  At 
Rusa  the  Grand  Prince  caused  many  boyars  to  be  beheaded, 
one  of  whom  was  the  son  of  Marfa,  and  sent  others  as  prison- 
ers into  Muscovy.  Ivan  the  Third  kept  advancing  by  battles 
and  by  treaties.  Novgorod  submitted  in  fourteen  hundred 
and  seventy,  paid  a  war  indemnity,  and,  if  it  still  remained  a 
republic,  it  was  a  republic  dependent  on  the  good  pleasure  of 
the  Prince. 

From  that  time  Ivan  aimed  at  the  entire  reduction  of  the 
town,  and  his  party  in  Novgorod  increased.  If  the  people 
complained  of  the  injustice  of  his  lieutenants,  he  accused  the 
insufficiency  of  the  ancient  laws  of  the  city.  He  tried  to  ex- 
cite the  animosity  of  the  other  classes  against  the  boyars.  It 
was  by  the  invitation  of  the  latter  that  he  came  in  fourteen 


220  HISTORY   OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

hundred  and  seventy-five  to  hold  a  solemn  court  in  Novgorod. 
Great  and  small  immediately  crowded  to  his  tribunal,  to  beg 
for  justice  one  against  the  other.  Ivan  saw  how  much  his 
own  cause  was  strengthened  by  these  divisions.  An  act  of 
authority  that  he  tried  succeeded  completely.  Marfa's  second 
son,  the  posadnik,  and  many  boyars  were  loaded  with  chains 
and  sent  to  Moscow.  No  one  dared  to  protest.  On  his  return 
to  his  capital  a  multitude  of  complainants  hastened  after  him; 
he  forced  them  all  to  appear  before  him.  Since  Rurik,  say  the 
annalists,  such  a  violation  of  the  liberties  of  Novgorod  had 
never  been  known.  Profiting  by  a  documentary  error  made 
by  the  envoys  of  the  town,  he  declared  himself  gosudar,  or  sov- 
ereign, of  Novgorod,  instead  of  gospodin,  or  lord.  Now,  if  this 
interpretation  were  accepted,  the  subjection  of  the  republic, 
which  was  only  a  matter  of  fact,  would  become  a  matter  of 
law.  Marfa's  party  made  a  last  effort  to  reject  this  sover- 
eignty ;  the  friends  of  the  Grand  Prince  were  massacred.  Ivan 
declared  that  the  Novgorodians,  after  having  accorded  him 
the  title  of  sovereign,  had  the  effrontery  to  deny  it.  Then 
the  Metropolitan,  the  bishops,  the  boyars,  all  Moscow,  advised 
him  to  make  war.  Accordingly  it  was  preached  as  a  Holy 
War  against  the  allies  of  the  Pope  and  Lithuania.  All  the 
forces  of  Russia  were  put  in  motion,  and  many  boyars  appeared 
at  the  Grand  Prince's  camp.  The  city  was  blockaded,  and 
reduced  to  starvation.  In  vain  the  partisans  of  Marfa  shouted 
the  old  war-cry,  "Let  us  die  for  liberty  and  Saint  Sophia!" 
They  were  forced  to  capitulate.  Ivan  guaranteed  to  them  their 
persons  and  possessions,  their  ancient  jurisdiction,  and  ex- 
emption from  the  Muscovite  service ;  but  the  vetche*  and  the 
posadnik  were  abolished  forever.  The  belfry  was  reduced  to 
silence.  The  Republic  of  Novgorod  thus  ceased  to  exist  in 
fourteen  hundred  and  seventy-eight. 

Marfa  and  the  principal  oligarchs  were  transported  to  Mos- 
cow, and  their  goods  confiscated.  Many  times  afterwards 
there  were  party  agitations,  which  were  quelled  by  Ivan  the 


1462-1505.]  IVAN  THE   GREAT.  221 

Third  and  his  successor,  by  numerous  transportations.  In 
fourteen  hundred  and  eighty-one  some  boyars  were  tortured 
and  put  to  death.  Eight  thousand  Novgorodians  were  trans- 
planted to  the  towns  of  Suzdalia.  Ivan  the  Third  struck 
another  terrible  blow  at  the  prosperity  of  the  city  when,  in 
fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-five,  after  a  quarrel  with  the  peo- 
ple of  Revel,  he  caused  the  merchants  of  forty-nine  Hanse 
towns  to  be  arrested  at  Novgorod,  pillaged  the  "  German  mar- 
ket," and  removed  wares  to  the  value  of  a  million  to  Moscow. 
The  covetous  Grand  Prince  doubtless  did  not  see  he  was  kill- 
ing the  hen  with  the  golden  eggs.  A  long  while  elapsed  be- 
fore the  merchants  of  the  West  again  made  their  appearance 
in  Novgorod.  Pskof,  more  docile,  preserved  its  vetche  and  its 
ancient  institutions. 

While  he  was  destroying  the  liberty  of  Novgorod,  Ivan  also 
took  away  its  colonies,  and  began  on  his  own  account  the  con- 
quest of  Northern  Russia.  By  this  time  Muscovy  extended 
as  far  as  Finland,  the  White  Sea,  and  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and 
had  already  obtained  a  footing  in  Asia.  Ivan  conquered  Per- 
mia  in  fourteen  hundred  and  seventy-two,  by  which  means  he 
became  master  of  the  "  silver  beyond  the  Kama,"  obtained 
by  the  Novgorodians  as  an  article  of  commerce.  In  fourteen 
hundred  and  eighty-nine  Viatka,  which  had  fallen  for  a  short 
time  in  the  power  of  the  Tatars  of  Kazan,  was  reconquered, 
and  lost  its  republican  organization.  In  fourteen  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  the  voievodui  of  Ustiug,  of  the  Dwina,  and  of 
Viatka  advanced  as  far  as  the  Petchora,  and  built  a  fortress 
on  the  banks  of  the  river.  In  the  depth  of  winter,  in  sledges 
drawn  by  dogs,  they  passed  the  defiles  of  the  Urals,  in  the 
teeth  of  the  wind  and  snow,  slew  fifty  of  the  Samoyedui,  and 
captured  two  hundred  reindeer ;  invaded  the  territory  of  the 
Vogului  and  Ugrians,  the  Finnish  brethren  of  the  Magyars ; 
took  forty  enclosures  of  palisades,  made  fifty  princes  prisoners, 
and  returned  to  Moscow,  after  having  reduced  this  unknown 
country,  supposed  by  the  geographers  of  antiquity  to  be  the 


222  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

home  of  so  many  wonders  and  monsters.  Russia,  like  the 
maritime  nations  of  the  West,  had  discovered  a  new  world. 

The  cultivated  provinces  of  Central  Russia  were  more  im- 
portant than  the  deserts  of  the  North.  Here  there  were  no 
immense  territories  to  be  conquered,  but  only  the  territories 
of  the  smaller  appanaged  princes  to  be  grafted  on  to  the 
already  united  mass.  Ivan  the  Third  might  have  dethroned 
the  young  Prince  of  Riazan,  whom  his  father  had  brought  to 
Moscow,  but  he  preferred  to  give  him  the  hand  of  his  sister, 
Anna  Vasilievna,  and  send  him  back  to  his  territories  in  four- 
teen hundred  and  sixty-four.  The  absorption  of  the  princi- 
palities of  Riazan  and  Novgorod-Severski  was  reserved  for  his 
successor.  He  showed  the  same  moderation  about  Tver,  but 
in  fourteen  hundred  and  eighty-two  Prince  Mikhail,  whose 
position  had  been  maintained  only  by  sufferance,  had  the  im- 
prudence to  ally  himself  with  Lithuania.  Ivan  hailed  this 
pretext  with  joy,  and  marched  in  person  against  Tver,  accom- 
panied by  the  celebrated  Alberto  Fioraventi  of  Bologna,  sur- 
named  Aristotele,  grand  master  of  his  artillery.  Mikhail  took 
refuge  in  Lithuania;  and  Ivan  began  to  organize  his  new 
subjects.  A  principality  which  could  furnish  forty  thousand 
soldiers  was  thus  united  to  Moscow  without  a  blow  in  fourteen 
hundred  and  eighty-five.  In  like  manner  he  obtained  posses- 
sion of  Vereia  and  of  Bielozersk,  and  deprived  the  princes 
of  Rostof  and  laroslavl  of  their  ancient  rights  of  sovereignty. 

His  father,  by  giving  appanages  to  his  brothers,  had  pre- 
pared for  him  a  new  and  ungrateful  task,  but  Ivan  undertook 
it  without  scruple.  When  his  brother  luri  died,  in  fourteen 
hundred  and  sixty-eight,  he  wept  much  for  him,  but  at  once 
laid  hands  on  his  towns  of  Dmitrof,  Mojaisk,  and  Serpukhof, 
thereby  causing  his  other  brothers,  who  hoped  to  share  the 
spoil,  great  discontent.  Andrei,  accused  of  an  understanding 
with  Lithuania,  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  died  in 
fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-three.  The  Grand  Prince  con- 
voked the  Metropolitan  and  bishops  to  his  palace,  appeared 


1462-1505.]  IVAN   THE   GREAT.  223 

before  them  with  eyes  cast  down,  his  face  sorrowful  and  bathed 
in  tears,  humbly  accused  himself  of  having  been  too  cruel  to  his 
unhappy  brother,  and  submitted  to  their  pastoral  admonitions ; 
but  he  confiscated  Andrei's  appanage  notwithstanding,  and 
that  of  his  brother  Boris,  who  died  a  short  time  after,  thus 
reuniting  all  his  father's  domains.  He  acquired  the  surname 
of  "  Binder  of  the  Russian  Land,"  a  name  which  his  eight 
predecessors  equally  merited.  It  was  owing  to  their  earlier 
labors  that  Ivan  was  able  to  become  the  greatest  and  most 
powerful  of  these  "  Binders."  He  avoided  their  errors ;  if 
later  he  gave  appanages  to  his  own  children,  it  was  only  on 
condition  that  they  should  remain  subjects  of  their  eldest 
brother,  and  that  they  should  neither  have  the  right  to  coin 
money  nor  to  exercise  a  separate  diplomacy. 


WARS  WITH  THE  GREAT  HORDE  AND  KAZAN.  — END  OF 
THE  TATAR  YOKE. 

The  Empire  of  the  Horde  had  at  last  dissolved.  The  prin- 
cipal states  which  had  risen  from  its  remains  were  the  Tsarate 
of  Kazan,  that  of  Sarai  or  Astrakhan,  the  Horde  of  the  Nogais, 
or  Nogaetsui,  and  the  Khanate  of  the  Crimea.  Kazan  and  the 
Crimea  particularly  presented  strange  ethnographical  amalga- 
mations. In  the  reign  of  Vasili  the  Blind  the  Tsarate  had 
been  founded  by  a  banished  prince  on  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
Bulgaria  on  the  Volga,  formerly  so  flourishing  and  civilized. 
It  was  the  same  Makhmet  who  had  tried  to  establish  himself  at 
Belef,  and  had  defeated  Shemiaka.  The  Mongols  had  mixed 
with  the  ancient  Bulgars,  and  built  up  an  important  centre  of 
commerce  and  civilization.  The  rule  of  the  Tsarate  extended 
over  the  Finnish  tribes  of  the  Mordva,  the  Tchuvashi,  and  the 
Tcheremisa,  as  well  as  the  Bashkirui  and  Meshtchera.  The 
Khanate  of  the  Crimea  had  been  founded  almost  at  the  same 
date  by  a  descendant  of  Genghis  Khan  named  Azi.  A  peas- 
ant named  Ghirei  having  saved  him  from  death,  Azi  added 


224  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

his  benefactor's  name  to  his  own,  and  henceforward  the  title 
belonged  to  all  the  khans  of  the  Crimea.  The  Mongols,  on 
arriving  at  the  peninsula,  found  it  occupied  by  the  remains  of 
the  ancient  Tauric,  Hellenic,  and  Gothic  races ;  by  Armenians, 
Jews,  and  Jewish  Khara'ites,  who  pretended  to  have  settled  in 
five  hundred  before  Christ  on  the  rocks  and  in  the  Troglodyte 
cities  of  Tchufut-Kale  and  Mangup-Kale ;  and  finally  by  the 
Genoese  of  KafFa.  The  Jews  and  Italians  excepted,  a  large 
part  of  the  ancient  population  was  absorbed  by  the  Asiatic  in- 
vaders. Likewise,  while  the  Tatars  of  the  Northern  Crimean 
steppes  are  pure  Nogais,  those  of  the  mountains  of  the  south 
seem  to  be  chiefly  Taurians,  Goths,  and  Islamized  Greeks.  As 
to  the  Great  Horde  of  Sarai,  that  was  almost  entirely  composed 
of  nomads,  such  as  the  Nogais  and  other  Turko-Tatar  races. 

Anarchy  and  dissensions  reigned  in  the  bosom  of  each  of 
these  states.     The  princes  of  Kazan,  Sarai,  and  the  Crimea 

came  to  seek  an  asvlum  from  the  Grand  Prince,  who  made 

* 

use  of  them  to  perpetuate  these  divisions.  In  fourteen  hun- 
dred and  seventy-three  Ivan  constituted  the  town  of  Novgorod 
of  Riazan  into  a  fief  for  one  Mustafa ;  others  served  in  the 
armies,  and  aided  Ivan  against  Novgorod  and  Lithuania. 
Towards  the  khans  and  the  tsars,  especially  those  of  the 
Great  Horde  or  Sarai,  the  sovereign  of  Moscow  held  himself 
on  the  defensive,  repelling  the  attacks  of  adventurers,  but 
taking  care  not  to  provoke  them  ;  avoiding  the  payment  of  the 
tribute,  but  willing  to  send  them  presents.  At  the  same  time 
he  schemed  for  alliances  against  the  Khan  of  Sarai,  and  in 
fourteen  hundred  and  seventy-seven  despatched  his  Italian 
ambassador,  Marco  Ruffo,  to  the  Turkoman  Ussum-Hassan, 
master  of  Persia  and  an  enemy  of  the  Mongols.  A  more  use- 
ful friendship  united  him  with  Mengli-Ghirei,  Khan  of  the 
Crimea,  and  lasted  all  their  lives.  Mengli  was  as  serviceable 
to  him  against  Lithuania  as  against  the  Horde. 

In  fourteen  hundred  and  seventy-eight,  having   carefully 
taken  all  his  measures,  he  openly  rebelled.     When  the  Khan 


1462-1505.]  IVAN  THE   GREAT.  225 

Akhmet  sent  his  ambassadors  with  his  image  to  receive  the 
tribute,  Ivan  the  Third  trampled  the  khan's  image  under  his 
feet,  and  put  all  the  envoys  to  death,  excepting  one,  who  con- 
veyed the  news  to  the  Horde.  This  act,  so  very  little  in 
accordance  with  the  well-known  prudence  of  Ivan,  is  not  to 
be  found  in  all  the  chronicles.  When  Akhmet  took  the  field, 
Ivan  occupied  a  strong  position  on  the  Oka,  with  a  more 
numerous  and  better-constituted  army  than  that  of  Dmitri 
Donskoi.  His  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  and  pow- 
erful artillery  did  not,  however,  prevent  him  from  reflecting 
much  on  the  hazard  of  battles.  He  even  returned  to  reflect 
at  Moscow,  and  it  needed  all  the  clamors  of  the  people  to 
induce  him  to  leave  it.  "  What !  "  exclaimed  the  Muscovites, 
"  he  has  taxed  us  heavily,  and  refused  to  pay  tribute  to  the 
Horde,  and  now  that  he  has  irritated  the  khan,  he  declines 
to  fight."  Ivan  wished  to  consult  his  mother,  his  boyars,  his 
bishop.  "  March  bravely  against  the  enemy,"  was  the  unani- 
mous reply.  "  Does  it  belong  to  mortals  to  fear  death  ?  " 
said  old  Archbishop  Vasian.  "  We  cannot  escape  destiny." 
Ivan  desired,  at  least,  to  send  his  young  son  Ivan  back  to 
Moscow,  but  the  prince  heroically  disobeyed.  The  Grand 
Prince  finally  decided  to  return  to  the  army,  blessed  by  his 
mother  and  the  Metropolitan,  who  promised  him  the  victory 
as  to  a  David  or  to  a  Constantine,  reminding  him  that  "  a 
good  shepherd  will  lay  down  his  life  for  his  sheep."  Ivan, 
who  did  not  feel  himself  made  of  the  stuff  of  a  Constantine, 
kept  his  army  immovable  on  the  Oka  and  the  Ugra ;  the  two 
forces  contenting  themselves  with  sending  arrows  and  insults 
across  the  river.  Ivan  closed  his  ears  to  the  warlike  counsel 
of  his  boyars,  and  listened  rather  to  the  prudent  advice  of  his 
two  favorites,  —  "  fat  and  powerful  lords,"  says  the  chronicle. 
However,  he  refused  the  propositions  of  the  khan,  who  offered 
to  pardon  him  if  he  would  either  come  himself  or  send  one  of 
his  men  to  kiss  his  stirrup.  At  last  monks  and  white-haired 
bishops  lost  all  patience.  Vasian  addressed  a  warlike  letter 

VOL.  I.  15 


226  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

to  the  Grand  Prince,  invoking  the  recollection  of  Igor, 
Sviatoslaf,  Vladimir  Monomakh,  and  Dmitri  Donskoi.  Ivan 
assured  him  that  this  letter  "  rilled  his  heart  with  joy,  cour- 
age, and  strength"  ;  but  another  fortnight  passed  in  inaction. 
On  the  fifteenth  day  the  rivers  were  covered  with  ice ;  the 
Grand  Prince  gave  the  order  to  retreat.  An  inexplicable  panic 
seized  the  two  armies,  —  Russians  and  Tatars  both  fled,  the 
one  from  the  other.  The  khan  never  stopped  till  he  reached 
the  Horde.  Such  was  the  last  invasion  of  the  horsemen  of 
the  Kiptchak.  It  was  in  this  unheroic  way  that  Russia  at 
last,  in  fourteen  hundred  and  eighty,  broke  the  Mongol  yoke 
under  which  it  had  groaned  for  three  centuries.  Like  Louis 
the  Eleventh,  Ivan  the  Third  had  his  battle  of  Montlhery ; 
but  if  he  fought  less,  he  gained  far  more.  The  Horde, 
attacked  by  the  khans  of  the  Crimea,  survived  its  decay  but 
a  short  time.  Akhrnet  was  put  to  death  by  one  of  his  own 
men. 

Hostility  increased  between  Kazan  and  Moscow.  In  four- 
teen hundred  and  sixty-seven  and  fourteen  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  Ivan  the  Third  organized  two  expeditions  against 
Bulgaria.  In  fourteen  hundred  and  eighty-seven,  seven  years 
after  having  shaken  off  the  supremacy  of  the  Great  Horde, 
the  Muscovite  voi'evodui  marched  against  the  same  Kazan, 
where  the  father  of  their  Grand  Prince  had  been  taken  cap- 
tive. After  a  siege  of  seven  weeks  the  city  was  taken,  and 
the  sovereign  Alegam  made  prisoner.  A  tsar  of  Kazan  was 
then  seen  a  prisoner  in  Moscow  !  Ivan  the  Third  added  the 
title  of  Prince  of  Bulgaria  to  those  he  already  bore;  but, 
feeling  that  the  Mussulman  city  was  not  yet  ripe  for  annexa- 
tion, he  gave  the  crown  to  a  nephew  of  his  friend  the  Khan  of 
the  Crimea.  The  people  were  forced  to  take  the  oath  of  fidel- 
ity to  him.  The  conquest  of  the  land  of  Arsk,  in  Bulgaria 
itself,  and  the  establishment  of  a  Russian  garrison  in  the 
fortress,  allowed  him  to  watch  from  close  by  all  that  passed 
in  Kazan.  The  Khan  of  the  Crimea  did  not  care  to  protest 


1462-1503.]  IVAN   THE   GREAT.  227 

against  the  captivity  of  the  Tsar  Alegam,  his  nephew's  enemy, 
but  the  princes  of  the  Shiban  and  the  Nogais,  who  were  re- 
lated to  him,  and  who  beheld  Islamism  humiliated  in  his  per- 
son, despatched  an  embassy  to  the  Grand  Prince.  The  latter 
refused  to  release  his  prisoner,  but  replied  so  graciously  that 
the  envoys  could  hardly  be  angry.  He  sent  to  those  zealous 
kinsmen  Flemish  cloth,  fishes'  teeth,  and  gerfalcons,  and  did 
not  forget  the  wives  of  the  Tatar  princes,  whom  he  called  his 
sisters.  At  the  same  time,  wishing  to  make  these  Asiatics 
feel  that  times  had  changed,  he  took  care  never  personally  to 
compromise  himself  with  the  Nogai  envoys,  and  to  communi- 
cate with  them  only  by  means  of  treasurers,  secretaries,  and 
other  officers  of  the  second  rank. 


WARS  WITH  LITHUANIA.  -  WESTERN   RUSSIA   AS  FAR  AS 
THE  SOJA  RECONQUERED. 

Lithuania  united  with  Poland  remained,  after  all,  Ivan's 
great  enemy.  This  composite  state  plays  the  same  part  in 
Russian  history  as  the  Burgundy  of  Philip  the  Good  and 
Charles  the  Bold  in  that  of  France.  Made  up  in  a  great 
degree  of  Russian  as  well  as  of  Polish  and  Lithuanian  ele- 
ments, it  was  many  times  on  the  point  of  annihilating  Russia, 
in  the  same  way  as  Burgundy,  composed  of  French,  Batavian, 
and  German  provinces,  had  been  on  the  point  of  annihilating 
the  French  nation.  Lithuania  was  incorporated  with  Poland 
in  the  same  manner  as  the  states  of  Burgundy,  unfortunately 
for  France,  were  incorporated  with  Austria. 

At  the  beginning  of  Ivan's  reign  the  King,  Kasimir  the 
Fourth,  was  sovereign  of  the  two  united  states,  and  neglected 
no  means  of  disquieting  the  Grand  Prince.  The  latter,  on 
his  part,  incited  his  ally  Mengli  to  invade  the  Lithuanian  pos- 
sessions ;  and  the  Crimean  Tatars  pillaged  Kief  and  the  Mon- 
astery of  the  Catacombs  in  fourteen  hundred  and  eighty-two. 
When,  ten  years  after,  Kasimir  died,  leaving  Poland  to  his 


223  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

eldest  son  Albert  and  Lithuania  to  Alexander,  the  second 
son,  Ivan  the  Third,  resolved  to  turn  the  division  to  account. 
He  had  obtained  the  friendship  of  the  Turkish  Sultan  Bajazet 
the  Second,  of  Matthias  Corvinus,  King  of  Hungary,  of  the 
active  Stephen  of  Moldavia,  the  determined  enemy  of  the 
Lithuanians  ;  but,  above  all,  he  counted  on  Mengli.  Mengli 
had  held  Lithuania  in  check  while  Ivan  was  freeing  him- 
self from  the  Mongols ;  now  he  was  to  play  the  same  part 
with  the  Horde,  while  the  Grand  Prince  settled  old  scores 
with  Alexander,  but  without  interfering  with  the  Tatar  incur- 
sions in  the  Ukraina.  The  discovery  at  Moscow  of  a  Polish 
plot  against  the  life  of  the  Grand  Prince  spread  rumors  of 
war.  In  the  same  way  that  he  had  been  able  to  utilize  the 
Mongol  refugees  against  the  Horde,  he  found  the  Lithuanian 
princes  and  other  great  personages  entering  into  relations 
with  him.  It  was  then  that  the  Belski  and  the  Glinski, 
afterwards  so  famous,  obtained  a  footing  in  Russia,  that  the 
Prince  of  Mazovia  sent  an  embassy  to  Ivan  the  Third,  and  the 
princes  of  Viazma,  Vorotinsk,  Bielef,  and  Mezetsk  did  him 
homage. 

The  war  was  popular  in  Moscow,  for  its  object  was  to  break 
the  yoke  imposed  by  the  Polish  Catholics  on  the  orthodox 
Russian  people.  In  White  Russia  the  Muscovites  were  to 
awake  old  national  and  religious  sympathies.  "  Lithuania," 
said  the  ambassadors  of  Ivan  the  Third  to  the  plenipoten- 
tiaries of  Alexander,  —  "  Lithuania  has  profited  by  the  misfor- 
tunes of  Russia  to  take  our  territory,  but  to-day  things  have 
changed."  Peace  was  made  in  fourteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
four,  after  a  short  war.  The  frontier  of  Muscovy  was  carried 
to  the  Desna,  and  comprehended  the  appanages  of  the  princes 
who  had  taken  service  with  Ivan,  with  Mstislavl,  Obolensk, 
Kozelsk,  Vorotinsk,  Peremuisl,  and  others. 

The  peace  seemed  to  be  cemented  by  the  marriage  of  Alex- 
ander with  Helena,  daughter  of  Ivan  the  Third  ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  this  union  proved  the  germ  of  a  new  war.  The 


1462-1505.]  IVAN  THE   GREAT.  229 

sovereign  of  Moscow  had  stipulated  that  his  daughter  was 
under  no  circumstances  to  change  her  religion,  that  she 
was  to  have  a  Greek  chapel  in  the  palace  and  an  orthodox 
almoner.  Ivan  himself  gave  his  daughter  the  most  pressing 
injunctions  never  to  appear  in  the  Catholic  church,  and  gave 
her  minute  directions  as  to  her  toilet,  her  table,  her  mode  of 
travelling,  and  her  way  of  conducting  herself  towards  her  new 
subjects.  At  her  departure  he  bestowed  on  her  a  collection 
of  various  pious  books.  His  policy  agreed  with  his  convic- 
tion :  it  was  necessary  that  in  Lithuania  orthodoxy  should 
rise  from  its  abasement,  and  reign  with  his  daughter.  Soon 
afterwards  he  complained  that  Helena  was  forced  to  offend 
her  conscience,  that  she  was  made  to  wear  the  Polish  costume, 
that  her  domestics  and  orthodox  almoners  were  dismissed 
and  their  places  filled  with  Catholics,  that  the  Greek  religion 
was  persecuted,  that  the  assassination  of  the  Metropolitan  of 
Kief  had  remained  unpunished,  and  that  he  was  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  a  man  devoted  to  the  Pope.  Lithuania,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  war,  was  further  enfeebled  by  new  defec- 
tions. The  princes  of  Bielsk,  of  Mossalsk,  of  Khotatof,  the 
boyars  of  Mtsensk  and  of  Serpeisk,  and  finally  the  princes  of 
Tchernigof  and  Starodub,  of  Ruilsk  and  Novgorod-Severski, 
declared  for  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow.  All  the  country 
between  the  Desna  and  the  Soja  passed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Russians,  together  with  Briansk,  Putivl,  and  Dorogobuzh. 
They  had  only  to  show  themselves  to  conquer.  Alexander 
could  not  abandon  the  conquests  of  Olgerd,  Vitovt,  and  Gedi- 
min  without  striking  a  blow,  but  his  army  was  cut  to  pieces 
at  the  battle  of  Vedrosha.  Konstantin,  Ostrqjski,  his  voievod, 
fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Muscovites,  who  tried  to  gain  him 
over  to  their  cause.  The  Lithuanians,  however,  kept  the 
strongholds  of  Vitepsk,  Polotsk,  Orsha,  and  Smolensk. 

This  prolonged  struggle  between  Alexander  and  Ivan  the 
Third  had  set  all  Eastern  Europe  in  a  blaze.  Alexander  had 
made  an  alliance  with  the  Livonian  Order  and  the  Great 


230  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

Horde.  The  Khan  of  the  Crimea  pitilessly  devastated  Gal- 
licia  and  Volhynia.  The  Russian  troops  again  defeated  the 
Lithuanians  near  Mstislavl,  but  were  forced  to  raise  the  siege 
of  Smolensk.  In  the  north  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow  had 
stopped  the  Germans  of  Livonia  from  building  the  fortress  of 
Ivangorod  opposite  Narva,  and  had  seized  the  Hanse  wares 
at  Novgorod.  The  Grand  Master,  Hermann  of  Plettenberg, 
responded  with  joy  to  the  appeal  of  the  Lithuanians ;  and  at 
the  battle  of  Siritsa,  near  Izborsk,  his  formidable  German 
artillery  crushed  an  army  of  forty  thousand  Russians  in  fifteen 
hundred  and  one.  The  latter  took  their  revenge  the  following 
year  on  the  iron  men  near  Pskof.  Schig-Akhmet,  Khan  of  the 
Great  Horde,  wished  to  make  a  diversion,  but  the  Khan  of 
the  Crimea  attacked  him  with  fury,  and  in  fifteen  hundred 
and  two  so  completely  extinguished  his  rule  that  the  ruins  of 
Sarai,  Batui's  capital,  where  the  Russian  princes  had  grovelled 
before  the  khans,  were  henceforward  a  home  of  serpents. 

Alexander  had  just  been  elected  King  of  Poland,  and 
wished  to  finish  this  ruinous  war.  The  celebrated  Pope,  Al- 
exander the  Sixth,  and  the  King  of  Hungary  tried  in  fifteen 
hundred  and  three  to  mediate  between  the  belligerent  powers. 
As,  however,  neither  of  the  two  parties  would  abate  any  of 
their  claims,  a  truce  of  six  years  only  could  be  agreed  on,  dur- 
ing which  time  the  Soja  was  to  be  the  boundary,  and  the  ter- 
ritories belonging  to  the  cities  and  the  princes  deserting  to 
Russia  were  to  be  left  in  its  power.  What  shows  the  good 
faith  of  Ivan  the  Third  is  that,  after  this  truce  was  signed,  he 
obtained  the  promise  from  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  to  continue 
his  attacks  against  Lithuania. 

MARRIAGE    WITH    SOPHIA    PAL.EOLOGUS.  —  THE     GREEKS 
AND  ITALIANS  AT  THE   COURT  OF  MOSCOW. 

The  acquisition  of  the  Novgorod ian  possessions  and  the 
appanages,  the  capture  of  Kazan,  the  fall  of  the  Horde,  and 
the  conquest  of  Lithuania  up  to  the  Soja,  had  doubled  the 


1462-1505.]  IVAN   THE   GREAT.  231 

extent  of  the  Grand  Principality,  even  without  reckoning 
the  immense  territory  it  had  gained  on  the  north.  An  event 
not  less  important  in  its  consequences  was  the  marriage  of 
Ivan  the  Third  with  a  Byzantine  princess.  Thomas  Palaeolo- 
gus,  a  brother  of  the  last  emperor,  had  taken  refuge  at  the 
Court  of  Rome.  There  he  died,  leaving  a  daughter  named 
Sophia.  The  Pope  wished  to  find  her  a  husband,  and  the 
Cardinal  Bessarion,  who  belonged  to  the  Eastern  Rite,  advised 
Paul  the  Second  to  offer  her  hand  to  the  Grand  Prince  of 
Russia.  A  Greek  named  luri,  and  the  two  Friazini,  relations 
of  Friazine,  minter  of  Ivan  the  Third,  were  sent  on  an  embassy 
to  Moscow.  Ivan  and  his  boyars  accepted  the  proposal  with 
enthusiasm:  it  was  God,  no  doubt,  who  had  given  him  so 
illustrious  a  wife ;  "  a  branch  of  the  imperial  tree  which  for- 
merly overshadowed  all  orthodox  Christianity."  Dowered  by 
the  Pope,  whose  heart  was  always  occupied  with  two  things, 
—  the  crusade  against  the  Turks  and  the  reunion  of  the  two 
Churches, — Sophia  went  from  Rome  to  Liibeck,  from  Liibeck 
by  sea  to  Revel,  and  was  received  in  triumph  at  Pskof,  Nov- 
gorod, and  the  other  towns  subject  to  Moscow.  This  daugh- 
ter of  emperors  was  destined  to  have  an  enormous  influence 
on  Ivan.  It  was  she,  no  doubt,  who  taught  him  to  "  pene- 
trate the  secret  of  autocracy."  She  bore  the  Mongol  yoke 
with  less  patience  than  the  Russians,  who  were  accustomed  to 
servitude.  She  incited  Ivan  to  shake  it  off.  "  How  long  am 
I  to  be  the  slave  of  the  Tatars  ?  "  she  would  often  ask.  With 
Sophia  a  multitude  of  Greek  emigrants  came  to  Moscow,  not 
only  from  Rome,  but  from  Constantinople  and  Greece;  among 
them  were  Demetrios  Ralo,  Theodore  Lascaris,  Demetrios 
Trakhaniotes.  They  gave  to  Russia  statesmen,  diplomatists, 
engineers,  artists,  and  theologians.  They  brought  with  them 
Greek  books,  the  priceless  inheritance  of  ancient  civilization. 
These  manuscripts  were  the  first  beginnings  of  the  present 
"  Library  of  the  Patriarchs." 

Ivan  the  Third  was  the  heir  of  the  Emperors  of  Byzantium 


232  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

and  the  Roman  Caesars.  He  took  for  the  new  arms  of  Russia 
the  two-headed  eagle  which  in  its  archaic  form  is  still  to  be 
found  in  the  Palace  of  Facets  of  the  Kreml.  Moscow  suc- 
ceeded Byzantium  as  Byzantium  had  succeeded  Rome.  Hav- 
ing become  the  only  metropolis  of  orthodoxy,  it  was  incumbent 
on  her  to  protect  the  Greek  Christians  of  the  entire  East,  and 
to  prepare  the  revenge  against  Islamism  for  the  work  of  four- 
teen  hundred  and  fifty-three.  With  the  Greeks  came  Italians  : 
Alberto  Fioraventi  Aristotele  of  Bologna,  who  was  Ivan  the 
Third's  architect,  military  engineer,  and  master  of  artillery ; 
Marco  Ruffo,  his  ambassador  in  Persia ;  Pietro  Antonio,  who 
built  his  imperial  palace ;  the  metal-founder,  Paul  Bossio,  to- 
gether with  architects  and  gunsmiths. 

Ivan  entered  into  relations  with  Venice  when  Trevisani, 
envoy  of  the  republic,  on  his  way  to  the  Horde,  tried  to  trav- 
erse the  Grand  Prince's  states  incognito,  and  was  arrested  and 
condemned  to  death.  The  Senate  interfered,  and  the  impru- 
dent diplomatist  was  set  at  liberty.  Ivan  sent  in  his  turn  a 
Russian  ambassador,  Simeon  Tolbuzin,  charged  to  bind  the 
two  countries  in  friendly  ties,  and  to  bring  back  some  skilful 
architect  from  Italy.  He  was  followed  in  fourteen  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  by  Demetrios  Ralo  and  Golokhvastof.  Con- 
tarini,  the  Venetian  ambassador,  returned  from  Persia  with  a 
French  ecclesiastic  named  Louis,  who  called  himself  envoy  of 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  the  Patriarch  of  Antioch.  He 
stopped  at  Moscow,  and  was  kindly  received  by  Ivan.  He 
himself  was  much  struck  by  the  Grand  Prince.  "  When,  in 
speaking,  I  respectfully  stepped  back,"  relates  Contarini,  "  the 
Grand  Prince  always  drew  near,  and  gave  particular  attention 
to  my  remarks."  Ivan  the  Third,  whether  to  secure  himself 
allies  against  Poland,  or  to  obtain  artists  and  handicrafts- 
men from  Germany,  exchanged  more  than  one  embassy  with 
Frederick  the  Third  and  Maximilian  of  Austria,  Matthias  of 
Hungary,  and  the  Pope.  When  attacked  by  Sweden,  he  nego- 
tiated an  alliance  with  Denmark.  Pleshtcheef  was  the  first 


ARMS    OF    RUSSIA. 


1462-1505.]  IVAN   THE   GREAT.  233 

Russian  ambassador  at  Constantinople  under  Bajazet  the  Sec- 
ond. From  the  East  came  envoys  of  Georgia  and  even  of 
Djagatai  or  of  Turkestan  and  Tartar  Siberia. 

This  prince  who,  born  vassal  of  a  nomad  race,  founded  the 
greatness  of  Russia,  may  be  compared  with  one  of  the  greatest 
of  French  kings,  Louis  the  Eleventh.  What  the  latter  accom- 
plished in  the  case  of  appanaged  feudalism  Ivan  succeeded  in 
doing  in  that  of  appanaged  principalities.  He  was  pitiless 
towards  the  smaller  Russian  dynasties,  as  the  King  of  France 
was  to  Armagnac  or  Saint  Pol.  He  succeeded  in  reducing 
Lithuania,  just  as  his  Western  contemporary  managed  to  dis- 
member Burgundy.  He  put  an  end  to  the  Mongol  invasions, 
as  Louis  did  to  the  English  wars.  He  repulsed,  without 
striking  a  blow,  the  last  incursion  of  the  khans,  as  Louis  the 
Eleventh  sweetly  dismissed  the  last  embarkation  of  the  English 
under  Edward  the  Fourth.  Both  had  the  same  taste  for  for- 
eigners, especially  industrious  Italians,  and  for  the  useful  arts. 
Both  explored  the  metallic  riches  of  their  states.  They  each 
created  a  diplomacy ;  the  one  by  means  of  Comynes,  the  other 
by  means  of  Greeks,  and  Russians  as  supple  as  Greeks.  They 
strengthened  the  national  army,  and  gave  it  a  permanent  char- 
acter ;  they  both  owed  their  success  against  the  minor  princes 
to  their  artillery. 

Louis  the  Eleventh,  who  wished  to  put  an  end  to  the  anarchy 
in  the  laws  and  to  the  thefts  of  chicanery,  meditated  a  real 
code,  a  complete  system  of  common  law,  which  would  put  the 
old  laws  in  harmony  with  the  new  order  of  things.  This  is 
precisely  what  Ivan  did  in  his  Ulogenia  of  fourteen  hundred 
and  ninety-seven.  In  comparing  it  with  the  Russkaia  Pravda 
of  laroslaf,  we  are  able  to  gauge  the  amount  of  change  caused 
in  the  national  laws  by  the  influence  of  Byzantium,  the  ex- 
ample of  the  Tatars,  and  the  progress  of  autocracy.  Corporal 
punishments  have  notably  increased  :  for  homicide,  death  ;  for 
theft,  whipping  in  a  public  place.  Torture  was  making  its 
way  in  the  procedure.  The  judicial  duel  was  still  admitted, 


234  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIII. 

only  now  it  could  hardly  become  mortal ;  each  of  the  com- 
batants had  a  cuirass,  and  was  armed  only  with  a  short  club. 
Women,  minors,  and  ecclesiastics  were  represented  by  a  cham- 
pion. In  the  same  way  as  the  end  and  aim  of  Ivan's  policy 
was  the  suppression  of  appanages,  that  of  his  code  was  to 
efface  the  privileges,  the  legal  and  judicial  peculiarities,  of  the 
different  provinces. 

For  three  generations  the  throne  had  been  inherited  in  the 
direct  line.  When,  however,  Ivan,  eldest  son  of  Ivan  the  Third, 
died,  the  latter  hesitated  long  between  his  grandson  Dmitri 
Ivanovitch  and  his  second  son  Vasili.  His  wife  supported 
Vasili ;  his  daughter-in-law  Helena,  Ivan's  widow,  naturally 
declared  for  her  own  son.  The  court  was  divided,  and  both 
parties  were  absorbed  in  their  intrigues.  Ivan  the  Third  at 
first  proclaimed  Dmitri,  threw  Vasili  in  prison,  and  disgraced 
his  wife.  Then  he  changed  his  mind,  imprisoned  his  daugh- 
ter-in-law and  his  grandson  in  their  turn,  and  proclaimed 
Vasili  his  heir.  The  Western  law  of  heredity  was  not  estab- 
lished in  Russia  without  many  struggles. 

Soloviof  says :  "  It  is  to  the  glory  of  Ivan  the  Third  that  he 
understood  how  to  make  the  most  of  his  opportunities  and  the 
fortunate  circumstances  in  which  he  found  himself  throughout 
his  whole  life.  He  proved  himself  to  be  the  true  descendant 
of  Vsevolod  the  Third  and  Ivan  Kalita,  to  be  the  genuine 
prince  of  Northern  Jlussia.  Economy,  deliberation,  caution, 
keen  distrust  of  bold  measures  which  may  accomplish  every- 
thing and  which  may  spoil  everything,  at  the  same  time  reso- 
lution in  carrying  to  the  end  whatever  he  had  once  begun, 
and  finally  absolute  coolness,  —  such  were  the  leading  traits 
of  the  character  of  Ivan  the  Third." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

VASILI  IVANOVITCH. 

1505  - 1533. 

REUNION  OP  PSKOP,  RIAZAN,  AND  NOVGOKOD-SEVERSKI.  —  WARS  WITH 
LITHUANIA.  —  ACQUISITION  OP  SMOLENSK.  —  WAES  WITH  THE  TATARS. 
—  DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  WITH  EUROPE. 


REUNION  OF  PSKOF,  RIAZAN,  AND  NOVGOROD-SEVERSKI.  — 
WARS  WITH  LITHUANIA.  — ACQUISITION  OF  SMOLENSK. 

THE  reign  of  Vasili  Ivanovitch  may  seem  somewhat  pale 
between  those  of  the  two  Ivans,  —  his  father  and  son, 
both  surnamed  the  Terrible.  It  was  likewise  of  shorter  dura- 
tion, lasting  only  twenty-eight  years,  from  fifteen  hundred  and 
five  until  fifteen  hundred  and  thirty-three,  but  it  was  the  con- 
tinuation of  the  one  and  the  preparation  for  the  other ;  the 
movement  which  was  bearing  Russia  towards  unity  and  autoc- 
racy was  not  retarded  under  Vasili  Ivanovitch. 

There  were  still  three  states  which  had  preserved  a  certain 
independence,  —  the  Republic  of  Pskof  and  the  principalities 
of  Riazan  and  Novgorod-Severski.  The  quarrels  still  con- 
tinued at  Pskof  between  the  citizens  and  the  peasants,  the 
aristocracy  and  the  lower  classes.  The  whole  of  Pskof  was  in 
conflict  with  the  prince's  royal  lieutenant.  Vasili  came  to 
hold  his  court  at  Novgorod,  and  summoned  the  magistrates 
of  Pskof  to  appear  before  him.  When  they  arrived,  he 
arrested  them.  A  merchant  of  Pskof,  who  was  on  his  way 
to  Novgorod,  returned  with  the  news  to  his  fellow-citizens. 
Instantly  the  bell  of  the  vetche  began  to  ring,  and  the  cry 


236  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

was  heard,  "  Let  us  raise  the  shield  against  the  Grand  Prince. 
Let  us  shut  the  gates  of  the  town."  The  more  prudent  tried 
to  restrain  the  people.  "What  can  we  do?  Our  brothers, 
our  magistrates,  our  boyars,  and  all  our  chief  men  are  in  the 
hands  of  the  prince."  The  imprisoned  Pskovians  sent  a 
messenger  to  implor,e  their  fellow-citizens  not  to  attempt  a 
useless  resistance,  and  to  avoid  bloodshed.  The  latter  then 
despatched  one  of  their  number  to  the  Grand  Prince,  and 
charged  him  to  say,  "  My  lord,  we  are  not  your  enemies. 
After  God,  it  is  you  who  have  power  over  all  your  subjects." 
Vasili  Ivanovitch  sent  them  one  of  his  diaki,  or  secretaries, 
who  was  admitted  into  the  assembly  of  the  citizens,  saluted 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Grand  Prince,  and  informed  them 
that  his  master  imposed  on  them  two  conditions :  the  first 
was  that  the  towns  subject  to  Pskof  should  receive  his  lieu- 
tenants, the  second  was  the  suppression  of  the  vetche  and  its 
bell.  For  a  long  while  they  could  give  him  no  answer,  — 
their  sobs  and  tears  choked  them.  At  last  they  demanded 
twenty-four  hours  to  deliberate.  The  day  and  night  passed 
in  lamentations.  "  The  infants  at  the  breast,"  says  the  annal- 
ist, "alone  could  refrain  from  tears."  The  next  day  the 
people  met  for  the  last  time,  and  the  first  magistrate  of  the 
city  thus  spoke  to  Dalmatof,  the  Grand  Prince's  diak  :  "  It  is 
written  in  our  Chronicles  that  our  ancestors  took  oaths  to  the 
Grand  Prince.  The  Pskovians  swore  never  to  rebel  against 
our  lord  who  is  at  Moscow,  never  to  ally  themselves  with 
Lithuania,  with  Poland,  nor  with  the  Germans,  otherwise  the 
wrath  of  God  would  be  upon  them,  bringing  with  it  famine, 
fires,  floods,  and  the  invasion  of  the  infidels.  If  the  Grand 
Prince,  on  his  part,  did  not  observe  his  vow,  he  dared  the 
same  consequences.  Now  our  town  and  our  bell  are  in  the 
power  of  God  and  the  prince.  As  for  us,  we  have  kept  our 
oath."  Dalmatof  had  the  great  bell,  symbol  of  the  independ- 
ence of  the  republic,  taken  down,  and  carried  to  Novgorod, 
amid  the  general  despair.  Then  Vasili  Ivanovitch  came  to 


1505  - 1533.]  .  VASILI   1VANOVITCH.  237 

visit  his  "  patrimony  of  Pskof."  He  installed  his  men  and 
boyars  in  the  upper  town,  transplanted  three  hundred  families 
of  the  aristocracy  into  the  cities  of  the  interior,  and  estab- 
lished three  hundred  Muscovite  families  in  their  place.  When 
he  went  away,  he  left  a  garrison  of  five  thousand  knights  and 
five  hundred  Novgorod  artillerymen.  This  was  in  the  year 
fifteen  hundred  and  ten.  "  Alas  !  "  cries  the  annalist,  "  glo- 
rious city  of  Pskof  the  Great,  wherefore  this  lamentation  and 
tears  ?  "  And  the  noble  city  of  Pskof  replies  :  "  How  can 
I  but  weep  and  lament?  An  eagle,  a  many- winged  eagle, 
with  claws  like  a  lion,  has  swooped  down  upon  me.  He  has 
taken  captive  the  three  cedars  of  Lebanon,  —  my  beauty,  my 
riches,  my  children  !  Our  land  is  a  desert,  our  city  ruined, 
our  commerce  destroyed.  Our  brothers  have  been  carried 
away  to  a  place  where  our  fathers  never  dwelt,  nor  our  grand- 
fathers, nor  our  great-grandfathers." 

Ivan,  Prince  of  Riazan,  was  accused,  about  fifteen  hundred 
and  twenty-one,  of  having  made  an  alliance  with  the  Khan  of 
the  Crimea.  He  was  summoned  to  Moscow  and  imprisoned. 
He  managed  to  escape  into  Lithuania,  where  he  died  in 
obscurity.  His  fertile  country,  whose  rich  harvests  "  looked 
like  waving  forests,"  was  united  to  the  Grand  Principality. 
A  certain  number  of  Riazanese  were  transported  to  Muscovite 
soil.  Vasili  Shemiakin  was  the  ruler  of  Novgorod-Severski ; 
he  was  the  grandson  of  the  Shemiaka  who  had  put  out  the 
eyes  of  Vasili  Vasilievitch.  About  fifteen  hundred  and  twenty- 
three,  on  the  accusation  of  an  understanding  with  Poland,  he 
was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  died.  There  was  now  only 
one  Russia.  One  of  the  Grand  Prince's  jesters  had  predicted 
the  fall  of  the  last  appanaged  prince.  He  went  through  the 
streets  of  Moscow  armed  with  a  broom,  crying  "  that  it  was 
time  to  clean  the  empire  of  what  remained  of  this  rubbish." 
Vasili,  like  the  most  of  his  predecessors,  had  little  tenderness 
for  his  family.  His  nephew  Dmitri,  whom  his  grandfather 
had  for  a  moment  destined  to  occupy  the  throne,  and  who  by 


233  HISTOKY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

Western  laws  was  the  rightful  heir,  died  in  prison.  One  of 
Vasili's  brothers,  feeling  the  yoke  press  too  heavily  on  him, 
tried  to  escape,  but  was  brought  back. 

The  son  of  Ivan  the  Great  continued  the  struggle  with 
Lithuania.  He  had  attempted,  at  the  death  of  Alexander,  to 
get  himself  nominated  Grand  Prince  of  Vilna,  and  the  recon- 
ciliation of  Muscovite  and  Lithuanian  Russia  would  have 
changed  the  destinies  of  the  North.  Sigismond  the  First 
reunited  the  two  crowns  of  Vilna  and  Poland.  An  unimpor- 
tant war  ended  in  fifteen  hundred  and  nine  by  a  "  perpetual 
peace,"  and  Vasili  renounced  all  claims  on  Kief  and  Smolensk. 
The  perpetual  peace  lasted  three  years,  which  were  filled  by 
the  recriminations  of  the  two  parties.  Vasili  accused  Sigis- 
mond of  never  having  sent  back  all  the  prisoners ;  of  pillaging 
the  Muscovite  merchants ;  of  maltreating  Alexander's  widow, 
daughter  of  Ivan  the  Third;  of  tempting  Simeon,  Vasili's 
brother,  to  fly  to  Poland ;  and  of  inciting  the  Crimean  Tatars 
to  ravage  Russia.  He  declared  that  "  as  long  as  his  horse  was 
in  condition  for  riding,  and  his  sword  cut  sharp,  there  should 
be  neither  peace  nor  truce  with  Lithuania."  Smolensk  was 
instantly  attacked ;  part  of  its  inhabitants  were  on  the  side  of 
Russia,  and  offered  to  submit  to  the  Grand  Prince.  A  volley 
of  artillery  knocked  down  the  ramparts  of  its  Kreml,  which 
towers  over  the  Dnieper.  The  Polish  voievod  was  compelled 
by  the  people  to  capitulate.  "  Spare  your  patrimony,"  said  they 
to  the  Grand  Prince.  The  Bishop  of  Smolensk  blessed  Vasili, 
and  the  inhabitants  took  the  oaths  of  fidelity  to  him  in  fifteen 
hundred  and  fourteen.  "  The  taking  of  Smolensk,"  says  a 
Russian  chronicler,  "  was  like  a  brilliant  fete-day  for  Russia  ; 
for  the  capture  of  the  property  of  another  can  flatter  only  an 
ambitious  prince,  but  to  gain  possession  of  what  is  one's  own 
is  ever  a  cause  of  joy."  Many  of  the  Lithuanians,  however, 
remained  undecided  ;  the  name  of  Russia  and  of  orthodoxy 
brought  them  into  communion  with  Moscow,  but  the  Musco- 
vites appeared  very  barbarous  compared  with  the  Poles,  and 


1505-1533.]  VASILI   IVANOVITCH.  239 

the  turbulent  nobility  of  Lithuania  were  better  suited  to  Po- 
lish anarchy  than  to  Russian  autocracy.  A  Glinski,  one  of  a 
Podolian  family,  who  went  over  to  Vasili  at  this  time,  played 
the  traitor.  Konstantin  Ostrojski,  whom  Vasili  had  tried  to 
gain  over  to  the  cause  of  orthodoxy,  fled  from  Moscow  ;  and 
it  was  he  who,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  fourteen,  inflicted  on 
the  Russian  voievodui  the  bloody  defeat  of  Orsha.  "  The 
next  day,"  says  Karamsin,  "  he  celebrated  the  victory  that  he 
had  won  over  a  people  of  the  same  religion  as  himself,  and 
it  was  in  the  Russian  tongue  that  he  gave  thanks  to  God  for 
having  destroyed  the  Russians."  Even  the  contemporaries 
felt  vaguely  that  a  struggle  between  Lithuanian  Russia  and 
Moscow  was  a  kind  of  civil  war.  Had  not  Vasili  tried  to 
unite  the  two  principalities  ? 

As  in  the  time  of  Ivan  the  Third,  the  duel  of  the  two 
states  made  itself  felt  throughout  Europe,  and  occasioned  a 
great  diplomatic  movement.  Sigismond  this  time  had  the 
Tatars  of  the  Crimea  on  his  side ;  Vasili  opposed  them  with 
the  Tatars  of  Astrakhan.  Sigismond  reckoned  on  Sweden. 
Vasili  negotiated  with  Denmark.  The  king  had  gained  over 
to  his  cause  the  Dnieper  Cossacks,  whose  name  already  began 
to  be  heard  in  history,  and  who  had  been  powerfully  organ- 
ized by  Dashkovitch.  But  Vasili  secured  the  friendship  of 
the  Teutonic  Order,  who  even  consented  to  invade  Polish 
Prussia ;  of  Maximilian  of  Austria,  who  signed  a  treaty  for 
the  division  of  the  Polish  territory ;  of  the  Hospodar  of  Wal- 
lachia ;  and  finally,  of  the  Sultan  Selim,  to  whom  he  sent 
embassy  after  embassy.  Negotiations  were  set  on  foot  in  con- 
sequence of  the  defeat  of  Konstantin  Ostrojski  before  Smolensk 
and  in  the  battle  of  Opotchka.  Maximilian  of  Austria  under- 
took the  office  of  mediator ;  his  ambassador,  Herberstein,  the 
same  who  has  left  us  the  curious  book  entitled  "  Rerum  Mos- 
covitarum  Commentarii,"  promised  that  Vasili  should  cede 
Smolensk,  and  quoted  to  him  the  disinterestedness  of  King 
Pyrrhus  and  other  great  men  of  antiquity.  Pope  Leo  the 


240  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

Tenth  intervened  without  greater  success,  though  he  coun- 
selled Vasili  to  leave  Lithuania  alone,  and  to  turn  his  thoughts 
to  Constantinople,  the  inheritance  of  his  mother,  Sophia  Palse- 
ologus.  At  last,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  twenty-two,  the  nego- 
tiations opened  and  terminated  in  the  truce  of  fifteen  hundred 
and  twenty-six.  Vasili  pronounced  a  discourse  on  the  sub- 
ject, in  which  he  expressed  his  friendship  for  his  noble  media- 
tors, the  Pope,  the  Emperor,  and  the  Archduke  of  Austria,  — 
Clement  the  Seventh,  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  Ferdinand,  —  but 
Russia  kept  Smolensk. 


WARS  WITH  THE  TATARS.  —  DIPLOMATIC  RELATIONS  WITH 

EUROPE. 

The  Tatars  were  still  dangerous.  Mengli-Ghirei,  the  an- 
cient ally  of  Ivan  the  Third,  had  declared  for  Lithuania  against 
Vasili.  Perhaps  the  old  khan  might  have  lost  the  authority 
necessary  to  restrain  his  sons  and  murzui,  who  only  wished  to 
pillage  the  Russian  territory.  Under  his  successor,  Makhmet 
Ghirei,  the  Crimea  became  a  deadly  enemy  of  Russia.  Kazan, 
on  expelling  the  protege  of  Ivan  the  Third,  had  elected  a 
prince  hostile  to  Moscow.  Two  expeditions  directed  against 
the  rebel  city  failed  completely.  At  the  death  of  the  Tsar  of 
Kazan  the  principality  became  the  apple  of  discord  between 
the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Grand  Prince.  The  Rus- 
sians, however,  had  succeeded,  and  installed  their  client,  Schig- 
Alei,  a  Mussulman  brutalized  by  idleness  and  pleasures,  whose 
enormous  belly  gave  him  a  grotesque  appearance ;  but  he  was 
overthrown  by  the  intrigues  of  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  and  a 
kinsman  of  the  Ghirei  was  placed  on  the  throne.  In  support 
of  their  candidate  the  Taurians  prepared,  in  fifteen  hundred 
and  twenty-one,  a  great  invasion  of  Russia.  They  crushed 
the  Russian  voievodui  on  the  banks  of  the  Oka,  ravaged  the 
Grand  Principality,  looked  on  Moscow  from  the  Hill  of  Spar- 
rows, and  made  themselves  drunk  with  hydromel  found  in  the 


1505-1533.]  VASILI   IVANOVITCH.  241 

Grand  Prince's  cellars.  At  the  Kreml  there  was  a  formidable 
array  of  artillery,  but  no  powder.  Herberstein  assures  us 
that  the  powerful  son  of  Ivan  the  Third  humiliated  himself, 
as  in  the  time  of  Ivan  Kalita,  to  save  his  capital,  sent  presents 
to  the  khan,  and  signed  a  treaty  by  which  he  professed  himself 
his  tributary;  but  that  in  his  retreat  Makhmet  Ghirei  was 
received  with  cannon-balls  by  the  voievod  of  Riazan,  who  took 
from  him  the  humiliating  treaty.  Though  the  Russian  honor 
was  saved  by  the  cannonade  of  Riazan,  this  invasion  cost 
Russia  dear.  All  the  flat  country  was  a  prey  to  the  flames. 
A  multitude  of  people,  especially  women  and  children,  were 
carried  off  by  the  barbarians.  Many  perished  on  the  journey ; 
the  rest  were  sold  in  whole  troops  in  the  markets  of  Kaffa 
and  Astrakhan.  The  following  year  Vasili  assembled  on  the 
Oka  a  formidable  army,  with  an  imposing  artillery,  and  sent 
a  challenge  to  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  summoning  him  to 
accept  an  honorable  fight  in  the  open  country.  The  Tatar 
answered  that  he  knew  the  way  to  Russia,  and  never  consulted 
his  enemies  as  to  when  he  was  to  fight.  A  short  time  after 
Makhmet  conquered  the  Tsarate  of  Astrakhan,  but  was  assassi- 
nated by  Mamai,  Prince  of  the  Nogai's. 

The  Tatars  of  the  Crimea,  thanks  to  the  vast  southern 
steppes,  were  nearly  beyond  Russian  enterprises  ;  but  it  was 
still  possible  to  attain  Kazan.  In  order  to  profit  by  the 
dissensions  of  the  Hordes  of  the  south,  two  new  expeditions 
were  fitted  out  in  fifteen  hundred  and  twenty-three  and  fifteen 
hundred  and  twenty-four  against  this  town,  but  both  were 
unsuccessful.  Vasili  discovered  a  more  certain  way  of  ruining 
his  enemies,  —  he  established  a  fair  at  Makarief  on  the  Volga, 
and  by  this  means  destroyed  that  of  Kazan.  It  was  this  fair 
of  Makarief  that  was  afterwards  transported  to  Nijni-Novgorod, 
and  which  draws  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  strangers 
from  Europe  and  Asia. 

Day  by  day  Russia  was  taking  a  more  important  place  in 
Europe.  Vasili  exchanged  embassies  with  all  the  sovereigns 

VOL.  I.  16 


242  HISTOKY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIV. 

of  the  West,  except  those  of  France  and  England.  He  was 
the  correspondent  of  Leo  the  Tenth  and  Clement  the  Seventh  ; 
of  Maximilian  and  Charles  the  Fifth ;  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  the 
founder  of  a  new  dynasty;  of  Sultan  Seliin,  conqueror  of 
Egypt ;  and  of  Suleiman  the  Magnificent.  In  the  East  the 
Great  Mogul  of  India,  Baber,  descendant  of  Tamerlane, 
sought  his  friendship.  Autocracy  daily  became  stronger. 
Vasili  governed  without  consulting  his  council  of  boyars. 
"  Be  silent,  rustic ! "  he  said  one  day  to  a  great  lord,  who 
dared  to  raise  an  objection.  Prince  Vasili  Kholmski,  who 
was  married  to  one  of  Vasili's  sisters,  was  thrown  into  prison 
for  indocility.  The  boyar  Beklemuishef  having  complained 
that  the  Grand  Prince  decided  all  the  questions  alone,  "  was 
shut  up,  with  two  others,  in  his  bedchamber,"  and  had  his 
head  cut  off.  The  Metropolitan  Varlaam  was  deposed  and 
banished  to  a  monastery.  Herberstein  asserts  that  no  Euro- 
pean sovereign  is  obeyed  like  the  Grand  Prince  of  Moscow. 
This  growing  power  was  manifested  externally  by  the  splen- 
dor of  the  court,  which  naturally  did  not  preclude  the  worst 
barbaric  taste.  In  the  reception  of  his  ambassadors  Vasili  dis- 
played unheard-of  luxury ;  many  hundreds  of  horsemen  accom- 
panied him  when  he  hunted.  The  Prince's  throne  was  guarded 
by  young  nobles,  with  their  head-dresses  of  high  caps  of  white 
fur,  dressed  in  long  caftans  of  white  satin,  armed  with  silver 
hatchets.  The  lists  of  his  masters  of  the  horse,  his  cupbearers, 
chamberlains,  and  other  servants  are  already  very  long.  Stran- 
gers continued,  though  in  small  numbers,  to  come  to  Moscow. 
The  most  illustrious  of  them  was  Maximus,  surnamed  the  Greek, 
a  monk  of  Mount  Athos,  and  native  of  Arta,  in  Albania.  In 
his  youth  he  had  studied  at  Venice  and  at  Florence,  and  been 
the  friend  of  Lascaris  and  Aldus  Manutius.  He  had  remained 
the  sincere  admirer  of  Savonarola.  Vasili  sent  for  him  with 
other  Greeks  to  translate  the  Greek  books  into  Slavonic,  and 
put  his  library  in  order.  Maximus  is  said  to  have  been  as- 
tonished to  find  in  the  Kreml  such  a  large  number  of  ancient 


MOUNT    ATHOS. 


1505-1533.]  VASILI  IVANOVITCH.  243 

manuscripts :  he  declared  that  neither  in  Italy  nor  in  Greece 
was  to  be  found  such  a  rich  collection.  After  finishing  the 
translation  of  the  Psalter,  he  wished  to  return  to  Mount  Athos. 
Vasili  retained  him,  made  him  his  favorite,  and  often  granted 
him  the  lives  of  condemned  boyars.  His  works,  his  science, 
as  well  as  his  reputation,  gained  him  the  hatred  of  ignorant 
and  fanatical  monks.  The  Metropolitan  Daniel  declared 
against  him.  When  Vasili  repudiated  against  her  will  his 
wife  Solomonia,  because  of  her  sterility,  the  "philosopher," 
it  seems,  ventured  to  blame  the  Prince,  who  then  abandoned 
him  to  his  enemies.  Denounced  before  an  ecclesiastical  tribu- 
nal, accused  of  heresy  and  of  false  interpretation  of  the  sacred 
books,  he  was  banished  to  a  monastery  at  Tver.  Later  he 
obtained  leave  to  retire  to  that  of  Troitsa,  where  there  is  still 
shown  the  tomb  of  the  man  who  was,  in  Russia,  one  of  the 
apostles  of  the  Renaissance. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

IVAN    THE    TERRIBLE. 

1533  - 1584. 

MINORITY  OF  IVAN  THE  FOURTH.  —  HE  TAKES  THE  TITLE  OF  TSAR  (1547). 
—  CONQUEST  OF  KAZAN  (1552)  AND  OF  ASTRAKHAN  (1554).  —  CON- 
TESTS WITH  THE  LlVONIAN  ORDER,  POLAND,  THE  TATARS,  SWEDEN, 

AND  THE  RUSSIAN  ARISTOCRACY. —  THE  ENGLISH  IN  EUSSIA.  —  CON- 
QUEST OF  SIBERIA. 

MINORITY  OF  IVAN  THE  FOURTH.  — HE  TAKES  THE  TITLE 

OF  TSAR 

THE  character  of  Ivan  the  Fourth  and  the  part  played  by 
him  have  been  and  still  are  very  differently  estimated 
by  Russian  historians.  Karamsin,  who  has  not  subjected  to  a 
sufficiently  severe  criticism  the  narratives  and  documents  from 
which  he  has  drawn  his  information,  found  in  him  a  prince  who 
was  cruel  and  vicious  by  birth,  but  was  miraculously  brought 
back  into  the  paths  of  virtue.  Under  the  guidance  of  two  ex- 
cellent ministers  he  gave  some  years  of  repose  to  Russia ;  then, 
abandoning  himself  to  his  passions,  astounded  Europe  and  the 
empire  with  what  the  historian  calls  the  "seven  periods  of 
massacres."  M.  Kostomarof  supports  the  verdict  of  Karamsin. 
Another  school,  represented  by  M.  Soloviof  and  M.  Zabielin, 
has  shown  more  mistrust  of  the  partial  accounts  of  Kurbski, 
leader  of  the  oligarchic  party,  of  Guagnini,  courtier  of  the 
King  of  Poland,  of  Taube  and  Kruse,  traitors  to  the  sov- 
ereign whom  they  served.  Above  all,  they  have  taken  into 
consideration  the  time  and  the  environment  of  Ivan  the  Terri- 
ble. These  historians  concern  themselves  less  with  his  moral- 


1533 -.1584.]  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.  245 

ity  as  an  individual  than  with  the  part  he  played  as  the  agent 
of  the  historical  development  of  Russia.  Did  not  the  French 
historians  for  a  while  refuse  to  recognize  the  immense  services 
rendered  by  Louis  the  Eleventh  in  the  great  work  of  consoli- 
dating the  unity  of  France  and  the  creation  of  a  modern  state  ? 
He  has  been  justified  at  last  by  an  attentive  examination  of 
documents  and  facts. 

At  the  time  when  Ivan  the  Fourth  succeeded  his  father  the 
struggle  of  the  central  power  with  the  forces  of  the  past  had 
changed  its  character.  The  old  Russian  states  which  had 
for  so  long  held  in  check  the  new  power  of  Moscow  —  the 
principalities  of  Tver,  Riazan,  Suzdal,  and  Novgorod-Sever- 
ski  —  and  the  republics  of  Novgorod,  Pskof,  and  Viatka  had 
lost  their  independence ;  their  possessions  had  gone  to  swell 
those  of  Moscow.  All  North  and  East  Russia  was  now 
united  under  the  sceptre  of  the  Grand  Prince.  To  the  per- 
petual contests  with  Tver,  Riazan,  and  Novgorod  succeed  the 
great  foreign  wars ;  the  crusades  against  Lithuania,  the  Tatars, 
the  Swedes,  the  Livonian  knights. 

Precisely  because  the  work  of  Great  Russian  unity  was 
accomplished,  the  internal  resistance  to  the  authority  of  the 
prince  became  stronger.  The  descendants  of  the  princely 
families  which  had  been  dispossessed  by  money  or  force  of 
arms,  together  with  the  retainers  of  these  ancient  reigning 
houses,  enlisted  in  the  service  of  the  master  of  Moscow.  The 
Court  of  the  latter  was  full  of  uncrowned  nobles,  Belskis, 
Shu'iskis,  Kurbskis,  Vorotinskis,  descendants  of  the  appanaged 
princes,  proud  of  the  blood  of  Rurik  which  ran  in  their  veins. 
Others  sprang  from  Gedimin,  the  Lithuanian,  or  from  bap- 
tized Tatar  princes.  All  these,  as  well  as  the  powerful  boyars 
of  Tver,  Riazan,  and  Novgorod,  became  the  boyars  of  the 
Grand  Prince.  There  was  only  one  court  for  all  to  serve,  — 
that  of  Moscow.  When  Russia  was  divided  into  sovereign 
states,  discontented  boyars  were  free  to  change  their  master, 
to  pass  from  the  service  of  Tchernigof  to  that  of  Kief,  or 


246  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

from  the  service  of  Suzdal  to  that  of  Novgorod.  Now,  where 
could  they  go?  Outside  of  Moscow  there  was  nothing  but 
foreign  sovereigns,  the  enemies  of  Russia.  To  make  use  of 
the  ancient  right  of  changing  master  was  to  pass  over  to  the 
enemy,  to  be  a  traitor.  To  change  and  betray  became  syno- 
nymes.  The  Russian  boyar  could  go  neither  to  the  Germans, 
to  the  Swedes,  nor  to  the  Tatars ;  he  could  go  only  to  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Lithuania,  but  that  was  exactly  the  worst  sort 
of  change,  the  blackest  of  treasons.  The  Prince  of  Moscow 
knew  well  that  the  war  with  Lithuania  —  that  state  which 
was  Polish  in  the  west,  and  exercised,  by  means  of  its  Russian 
provinces  in  the  east,  a  dangerous  fascination  on  the  subjects 
of  Moscow — was  a  struggle  for  existence.  Lithuania  was 
an  internal  as  well  as  an  external  enemy,  on  terms  of  under- 
standing and  sympathy  with  the  heart  of  the  Russian  state, 
even  in  the  palace  of  the  Tsar  himself,  and  its  formidable  hand 
is  found  in  all  intrigues  and  conspiracies.  The  external  strug- 
gle with  Lithuania  and  the  internal  struggle  with  the  Russian 
oligarchy  are  different  phases  of  the  same  contest,  the  heaviest 
and  most  perilous  of  all  sustained  by  the  Grand  Princes  of 
Moscow.  The  dispossessed  princes,  the  boyars  of  the  ancient 
independent  states,  had  renounced  the  strife  with  him  on  the 
battle-field,  but  they  continued  to  combat  his  authority  in  his 
own  Court.  There  are  no  more  wars  of  state  against  state ; 
henceforth  the  war  is  intestine,  that  of  oligarchy  against 
autocracy.  Resigned  to  being  sovereign  princes  no  longer, 
the  boyar  princes  of  Moscow  were  not  yet  content  to  be  only 
subjects.  The  narrower  area  intensified  the  violence  of  the 
contest.  The  Court  of  Moscow  was  an  arena  from  which 
none  could  pass  without  changing  the  Muscovite  for  the 
Lithuanian  master,  —  without  playing  the  traitor.  Hence  the 
passionate  character  of  the  struggle  between  the  two  princi- 
ples under  Ivan  the  Fourth.  Besides,  the  sovereigns  of  Mos-  - 
cow  who,  after  so  many  efforts,  had  destroyed  the  Russian 
states  that  held  Moscow  in  check,  committed  the  same  fault 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  247 

as  the  Capets  or  the  early  Valois.  In  constituting  appanages 
for  the  younger  branches,  they  built  up  with  one  hand  what 
they  pulled  down  with  the  other ;  to  the  sovereign  princes  of 
the  eleventh  century  succeeded  the  princes  of  the  blood,  the 
appanaged  princes  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 
These  also  had  their  domain,  their  boyars,  their  men-at-arms. 
They  were  the  Grand  Prince's  brothers,  uncles,  cousins,  who 
became  the  chiefs  of  the  vanquished  oligarchy,  and  organized 
the  coalition  of  the  forces  of  the  past  against  him.  They  stood 
to  him  as  the  Capets  of  Burgundy,  Berri,  Bourbon,  and  Or- 
leans stood  to  the  Capet  kings,  Charles  the  Seventh,  Louis  the 
Eleventh,  and  Charles  the  Eighth. 

Vasili  Ivanovitch  left  two  sons,  Ivan  and  luri,  under  the 
guardianship  of  his  second  wife,  Helena  Glinski.  She  had 
come  into  Russia  with  a  family  of  Podolian  nobles,  proscribed 
by  Sigismond,  and  accused  of  having  plotted  against  his  life. 
Helena  Glinski  had  won  the  heart  of  her  old  husband  Vasili, 
not  only  by  her  beauty,  but  by  her  free  and  attractive  man- 
ners, an  independence  of  spirit  and  character,  and  a  variety  of 
accomplishments  not  to  be  found  among  the  Russian  women 
of  that  day,  condemned  as  they  were  to  seclusion.  She  was 
almost  a  Western  woman.  Vasili,  on  his  death-bed,  was  able 
to  leave  her  with  the  guardianship  of  her  sons,  and  the  care 
of  strengthening  his  work  and  that  of  his  ancestors.  This 
energetic  woman  knew  how  to  put  down  all  attempts  of 
princely  and  oligarchic  reaction  against  the  autocracy  of  the 
Grand  Prince.  One  of  her  husband's  brothers,  luri  Ivano- 
vitch, convicted  of  rebellion,  was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he 
died.  Helena's  own  uncle,  Mikhail  Glinski,  an  ambitious  and 
turbulent  Podolian,  after  having  enjoyed  her  confidence  for 
some  time,  was  likewise  arrested,  and  died  in  confinement. 
Andrei  Ivanovitch,  another  brother  of  the  late  Tsar,  tried  to 
escape  into  Poland  to  obtain  the  support  of  Sigismond ;  he 
was  stopped  on  the  way  and  imprisoned.  Lithuania  attempted 
to  come  to  his  aid,  by  taking  up  arms  for  the  rebels  of  the 


248  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

interior.  This  unimportant  war  was  ended  in  fifteen  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  by  a  truce.  The  Tatars  of  Kazan  and  the 
Crimea  suffered  many  defeats  ;  and  to  place  Moscow  beyond 
the  possibility  of  being  seized  by  a  sudden  surprise,  Helena 
enclosed  with  ramparts  the  quarter  known  by  the  name  of 
Kitai-gorod.  As  she  could  not  entirely  rely  either  on  the 
boyars  or  on  the  princes,  nor  even  on  her  own  relations,  she 
gave  all  her  confidence  to  the  master  of  the  horse,  Telepnef, 
whom  the  public  voice  charged  with  being  her  lover.  A  gov- 
ernment as  energetic  against  its  internal  as  against  its  foreign 
enemies  gave  little  satisfaction  to  the  oligarchic  party.  In 
fifteen  hundred  and  thirty-eight  Helena  died,  the  victim  of 
poison. 

The  boyars  then  took  possession  of  the  government,  after 
having  put  to  death  the  master  of  the  horse,  and  imprisoned 
his  sister  Agrafena,  Ivan's  nurse.  The  chief  power  was  dis- 
puted especially  by  two  families,  —  the  Shui'skis  and  the 
Belskis.  Russia  became  a  prey  to  anarchy,  the  governments 
and  the  voievodies  were  given  by  turns  to  the  creatures  of 
these  two  families,  and  the  people  were  cruelly  oppressed; 
the  two  factions  even  elevated  and  deposed  at  will  the  Metro- 
politan of  Moscow.  At  last  Andrei  Shuiski  penetrated  into 
the  sacred  city  and  the  Kreml,  by  the  force  of  arms  overthrew 
the  government  of  the  Belskis,  and  once  more  deposed  the 
Metropolitan. 

Whilst  the  nobles  were  thus  intriguing  for  the  supreme 
power,  Vasili's  two  sons  were  left  by  themselves.  luri,  the 
younger,  was  feeble  in  intellect,  but  Ivan,  like  Peter  the 
Great,  whom  in  many  points  he  resembled,  was  a  highly 
gifted  boy.  He  suffered  keenly  from  the  contempt  in  which 
his  turbulent  subjects  held  him.  "  We  and  our  brother  luri," 
he  afterwards  writes,  "  were  treated  like  foreigners,  like  the 
children  of  beggars.  We  were  ill-clothed,  we  were  cold  and 
hungry."  They  saw  the  boyars  pillage  the  treasures  and  lux- 
urious furniture  of  the  palace ;  Shui'ski  even  threw  himself  in 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  249 

Ivan's  presence  on  the  bed  of  the  late  Tsar.  The  empire  was 
plundered  as  well  as  the  palace.  "  They  wandered  every- 
where," continues  Ivan  the  Fourth,  "in  the  towns  and  villages, 
cruelly  tormenting  the  people,  inflicting  all  kinds  of  evils  on 
them,  exacting  fines  without  mercy  from  the  inhabitants.  Of 
our  subjects  they  have  made  their  slaves ;  of  their  slaves,  the 
nobles  of  the  state."  He  saw  all  whom  he  loved  torn  from 
him,  —  his  nurse  Agrafena ;  the  master  of  the  horse,  Telepnef, 
who  had  been  put  to  death ;  and  his  favorite  Vorontsof,  who 
was  roughly  handled  and  nearly  killed  by  the  boyars.  It  was 
enough  that  a  courtier  took  pains  to  plense  him,  for  him  in- 
stantly to  become  an  object  of  mistrust  to  the  oligarchs.  Ivan, 
like  a  neglected  child,  badly  educated,  never  disciplined,  had 
to  be  his  own  master.  He  read  much,  at  hap-hazard,  —  the 
Bible,  the  Lives  of  the  Saints,  the  Byzantine  Chroniclers 
translated  into  Slavonic, — whatever  came  in  his  wav.  Above 

tf 

all,  he  thought.  He  had  imbibed  from  his  reading  a  high 
idea  of  what  it  was  to  be  a  king,  and  knew  well  that  he  was 
the  rightful  master.  These  very  boyars,  so  insolent  towards 
him  in  private,  —  did  he  not  see  them  in  public  ceremonials, 
at  receptions  of  ambassadors,  rival  each  other  in  affected 
respect  and  servility  ?  It  was  he  who,  seated  on  his  throne, 
received  the  compliments  of  the  foreign  envoys ;  his  signature 
was  necessary  to  give  the  force  of  law  to  actions  the  most 
contrary  to  his  will.  These  were  no  vain  forms,  but  implied 
real  power.  Ivan,  however,  dissembled.  After  the  Christmas 
fetes  of  fifteen  hundred  and  forty-three  he  suddenly  summoned 
his  boyars  before  him,  addressed  them  in  a  menacing  tone, 
and  reproached  them  sternly  for  their  manner  of  governing. 
"  There  were  among  them,"  he  added,  "  many  guilty  ones ; 
but  this  time  he  would  content  himself  with  making  one 
example."  He  then  ordered  his  guards  to  seize  Andrei 
Shuiski,  the  chief  of  the  government,  and  there  and  then  had 
him  torn  to  pieces  by  hounds.  Some  of  the  most  turbulent 
and  the  most  compromised  were  banished  to  distant  towns. 
The  author  of  this  coup  d'etat  was  thirteen  years  old. 


250  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

According  to  the  invariable  custom  of  Muscovite  sovereigns, 
Ivan  surrounded  himself  by  his  maternal  relations,  those  on 
his  father's  side  being  naturally  objects  of  suspicion.  Then 
began  what  was  called  a  Vremia ;  that  is,  "  a  season  of  favor." 
The  prince's  relatives,  the  vremenshtchiki,  or  men  of  the 
season,  the  Glinskis,  were  charged  to  provide  for  the  admin- 
istration of  the  empire.  In  January,  fifteen  hundred  and  forty- 
seven,  Ivan  ordered  the  Metropolitan  Macarius  to  proceed 
with  his  coronation.  He  assumed  at  the  ceremony  not  only 
the  title  of  Grand  Prince,  but  that  of  Tsar.  The  first  title  no 
longer  answered  to  the  new  power  of  the  sovereign  of  Moscow, 
who  counted  among  his  domestics  princes  and  even  Grand 
Princes.  The  name  of  Tsar  is  that  which  the  books  in  the 
Slavonic  language,  ordinarily  read  by  Ivan,  give  to  the  kings 
of  Judaea,  Assyria,  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  to  the  emperors  of 
Rome  and  Constantinople.  Now,  was  not  Ivan  in  some 
sort  the  heir  of  the  Tsar  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  Tsar  Pharaoh, 
the  Tsar  Ahasuerus,  and  the  Tsar  David,  since  Russia  was 
the  sixth  empire  spoken  of  in  the  Apocalypse  ?  Through  his 
grandmother  Sophia  Palaeologus  he  was  connected  with  the 
family  of  the  Tsars  of  Byzantium ;  through  his  ancestor 
Vladimir  Monomakh  he  belonged  to  the  Porphyrogeniti ;  and 
through  Constantino  the  Great,  to  Caesar.  If  Constantinople 
had  been  the  second,  Moscow  was  the  third  Rome,  —  living 
heir  of  the  Eternal  City.  We  may  imagine  what  prestige  was 
added  to  the  dignity  of  the  Russian  sovereign  by  this  dazzling 
title,  borrowed  from  Biblical  antiquity,  from  Roman  majesty, 
from  the  orthodox  sovereigns  of  Byzantium.  It  recalled  at 
the  same  time  the  recently  acquired  freedom  of  Russia ;  the 
Slavonic  authors  likewise  bestowed  this  august  title  on  the 
Mongol  khans,  suzerains  of  the  Muscovite  princes.  Now  that 
fortune  smiled  upon  Russia,  it  well  became  its  prince  to  call 
himself  "Tsar."  Shortly  after,  Ivan,  whose  deserted  youth 
had  been  soiled  by  debauchery,  confirmed  his  return  to  virtue 
by  his  marriage  with  Anastasia,  of  that  family  of  Romanof 


THE  TERRIBLE 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  251 

whose  future  destiny  was  to  be  so  brilliant.  His  Court  was 
increased  by  men  chosen  from  the  relatives  of  the  Tsaritsa. 

The  vanquished  party  naturally  would  not  consent  to  be  set 
aside  without  a  struggle  for  revenge.  Fortune  soon  gave  them 
an  opportunity.  For  four  years  Ivan  had  governed  absolutely, 
supported  by  his  connections,  the  Glinskis  and  the  Romanofs, 
and  it  was  many  years  since  Russia  had  been  so  tranquil. 
Suddenly,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  forty-seven,  a  terrible  fire 
broke  out  and  destroyed  a  great  part  of  Moscow,  and  seventeen 
hundred  people  perished.  The  Tsar  took  refuge  at  Vorobief, 
and  thence  contemplated  with  terror  the  destruction  of  his 
capital.  An  inquiry  was  made,  and  the  boyars  took  advan- 
tage of  it  to  insinuate  to  the  people  that  it  was  the  Glinskis 
who  had  burnt  Moscow.  "  It  is  the  Princess  Anna  Glinski," 
repeated  voices  among  the  crowd,  "  who,  with  her  two  sons, 
has  made  enchantments;  she  has  taken  human  hearts,  and 
plunged  them  in  water,  and  with  this  water  has  sprinkled  the 
houses.  This  is  the  cause  of  the  destruction  of  Moscow." 
The  enraged  multitude  burst  into  the  palace  of  the  Glinskis. 
One  of  them,  luri,  was  killed  in  the  very  porch  of  the  Assump- 
tion. Then  the  rioters  proceeded  to  Vorobief  and  demanded 
Ivan's  grandfather,  the  old  Glinski.  The  sovereign's  own  life 
was  in  danger;  it  was  necessary  to  use  force  to  disperse  the 
rebels. 

The  events  which  followed  are  unintelligible  from  the 
dramatized  recital  of  Karamsin,  but  very  clear  if  we  keep  to 
the  logic  of  facts.  Ivan  could  hardly  be  ignorant  who  had 
raised  this  revolt,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  give  himself  up  to 
his  ancient  guardians.  But  his  nervous,  impressionable  nature 
had  been  greatly  struck  by  the  spectacle  under  his  eyes.  Under 
the  influence  of  this  terror  he  examined  his  conscience,  and  re- 
solved to  amend  his  life.  He  took  as  his  spiritual  director 
the  priest  Silvester,  who  had  dwelt  in  his  palace  for  nine  years, 
and  had  a  great  reputation  for  virtue  ;  he  gave  him  at  the  same 
time  the  administration  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  Alexis  Ada- 


252  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

shef,  one  of  the  smaller  nobility,  was  charged  with  receiving 
petitions,  and  the  supervision  of  the  departments  of  the  in- 
terior and  of  war.  As  long  as  the  two  new  favorites  con- 
fined themselves  to  their  offices,  the  Court  was  tranquil.  It 
was  the  happiest  period  of  the  reign  of  Ivan  the  Fourth.  In 
the  interior,  the  municipal  administration  was  reorganized  in 
fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-one.  A  new  code  was  prepared, 
and  a  council  assembled,  whose  hundred  articles  were  occu- 
pied with  Church  reforms.  Abroad,  Russia  was  mistress  of  its 
ancient  masters. 


CONQUEST  OF  KAZAN  AND  OF  ASTRAKHAN. 

The  kingdom  of  Kazan  continued  to  be  distracted  by  two 
opposing  influences,  —  that  of  Russia  and  that  of  the  Khan  of 
the  Crimea.  The  latter  seemed  the  stronger,  and  Safa-Ghirei, 
candidate  for  the  Crimea,  distinguished  his  accession  by  rav- 
aging the  Russian  territory ;  the  khan  supported  him  in  these 
incursions  by  advancing  with  the  whole  Crimean  horde  as  far 
as  the  Oka.  When  Safa  died,  leaving  a  son  who  was  a 
minor,  the  Muscovite  party  took  the  upper  hand  in  Kazan 
and  bestowed  the  crown  on  Schig-Alei.  He  made  himself 
detested  by  his  new  subjects,  and  things  came  to  such  a  pass 
that  the  Kazanese  seemed  to  prefer  the  direct  rule  of  Moscow 
to  this  disguised  subordination.  At  the  request  of  the  in- 
habitants Ivan  recalled  Schig-Alei,  and  sent  them  a  viceroy, 
Mikulinski.  Suddenly  a  rumor  was  spread  in  Kazan  that 
Mikulinski  was  approaching  with  Russian  troops  with  the 
object  of  exterminating  the  population.  A  rebellion  broke 
out.  The  gates  of  Moscow  were  shut  on  the  Muscovites,  and 
men  demanded  a  prince  of  the  Nogaii  Tatars.  Ediger-Makh- 
met  was  proclaimed  Tsar  of  Kazan. 

Ivan  determined  to  make  an  end  of  this  Mussulman  city. 
In  June,  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-two,  the  same  year  that 
Henry  the  Second  obtained  possession  of  the  three  bishoprics, 


1533-1584.]  IVAN   THE   TERRIBLE.  253 

the  Tsar  took  the  field.  He  was  at  once  checked  by  the  news 
that  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  wishing  to  save  Kazan  by  a 
diversion,  had  invaded  Moscow.  Ivan  advanced  against  him 
as  far  as  the  Oka ;  there  he  learned  that  the  barbarians,  not 
being  able  to  take  Tula,  had  hastily  retired.  Upon  this, 
Ivan's  infantry,  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men  and 
one  hundred  and  fifty  pieces  of  cannon,  descended  the  Volga 
in  boats,  while  the  cavalry  followed  along  the  banks  and 
directed  their  course  to  Kazan.  The  creation  of  advanced 
posts  had  diminished  the  distance  that  separated  Kazan  from 
Nijni-Novgorod.  His  father  had  founded  Makarief  and 
Vasilsursk  on  the  Volga ;  and  he  himself  had  established  in 
fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-one  the  warlike  colony  of  Sviajsk  on 
the  Sviaga.  Later  he  founded  those  of  Kosmodemiansk  and 
Tcheboksarui. 

At  the  beginning  of  September  Ivan  encamped  under 
Kazan,  and  surrounded  it  by  a  line  of  circumvallation,  which 
cut  off  all  communication  between  the  town  and  the  cavalry  of 
the  Murza  lapantcha,  which  had  taken  the  field.  The  garri- 
son of  Kazan,  numbering  thirty  thousand  Tatars  and  twenty- 
five  hundred  Nogais,  defended  themselves  energetically  and 
incessantly,  and  managed  by  their  sorties  to  hinder  the  work 
of  the  assailants.  The  Tsar  repeatedly  offered  them  honorable 
terms ;  he  even  hung  up  his  prisoners  on  gibbets  to  frighten 
the  Kazanese  into  surrendering,  but  the  besieged  only  shot  ar- 
rows against  these  unhappy  wretches,  crying  that "  it  was  better 
for  them  to  receive  death  from  the  clean  hands  of  their  coun- 
trymen than  to  perish  by  the  impure  hands  of  Christians." 
The  Russian  army  had  to  struggle  with  the  unchained  ele- 
ments as  well  as  with  their  enemies.  The  fleet  which  bore 
their  provisions  and  powder  was  destroyed  by  a  tempest. 
The  voievodui  wished  to  raise  the  siege,  but  Ivan  reanimated 
their  failing  courage.  Prolonged  rains  flooded  the  Muscovite 
camp,  caused,  it  was  said,  by  the  sorcerers  of  Kazan,  who 
stood  on  the  walls,  their  robes  girt  up,  insulting  the  besiegers 


254  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

by  their  words  and  gestures.  Ivan  sent  to  Moscow  for  a 
miraculous  cross,  which  immediately  destroyed  the  power  of 
the  enchantments. 

Ivan  had  secured  the  services  of  a  German  engineer,  who 
laid  mines  under  the  very  walls  of  the  town.  The  ramparts 
of  wood  and  bricks  at  many  points  fell  with  ar  great  noise, 
and  the  Russian  army  entered  the  town  by  the  breaches.  A 
fierce  hand-to-hand  fight  took  place  in  the  streets  and  around 
the  palace.  The  bravest  of  the  Kazanese,  after  having  tried 
to  defend  their  prince,  cut  their  way  through,  but,  pursued  by 
the  light  cavalry,  few  escaped.  In  the  town  numbers  were 
massacred :  those  only  were  spared  who  could  be  sold  to 
slave-merchants.  When  the  Tsar  made  his  triumphal  entry 
into  the  middle  of  these  bloody  ruins,  he  was  moved,  like 
Scipio  at  Carthage,  by  a  feeling  of  pity  for  this  great  disaster. 
"  They  are  not  Christians,"  said  he,  weeping,  "  but  yet  they 
are  men."  The  town  was  repeopled  by  Russians,  and  even 
at  the  present  day  the  Tatar  population  is  confined  to  the 
suburbs.  In  the  Kreml  Ivan  annihilated  all  the  monuments 
of  the  Mongol  past,  and  replaced  them  by  churches  and  mon- 
asteries which  attested  his  gratitude  towards  God  and  the 
triumph  of  the  Cross  over  Islam. 

These  events  took  place  long  years  ago,  but  they  still  live 
in  the  memory  of  the  Russian  people.  Many  epics  are  con- 
secrated to  this  great  victory.  It  is  not  only,  as  Karamsin 
says,  because  Kazan  was  the  first  fortress  taken  by  the  Rus- 
sians after  a  siege  conducted  according  to  the  rules  of  war ;  it 
is  because  the  capture  of  Kazan  marks  the  culminating  point 
in  the  history  of  the  long  struggle  of  the  Slavs  against  the 
Tatars, — a  struggle  which  began  by  the  total  subjugation  of 
Russia  by  the  Mongols,  but  which  has  continued  to  our  own 
day,  and  probably  will  end  only  with  the  conquest  of  the 
Tatar  races  by  the  Russian  Empire.  The  victory  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible  is  the  first  great  revenge  of  the  vanquished  over 
the  vanquishers,  the  first  triumph  at  the  expense  of  the  con- 


1533-1584.]  IVAN   THE   TERRIBLE.  255 

querors,  the  first  stage  reached  by  European  civilization  in 
taking  the  offensive  against  Asia.  In  the  Russian  annals  the 
expedition  of  Kazan  occupies  the  same  glorious  place  as  the 
defeat  of  Abderahman  in  the  history  of  the  Franks,  or  Las 
Navas  da  Tolosa  in  the  chronicles  of  Spain.  It  was  more  than 
a  conquest,  it  was  a  crusade.  During  the  assault  Ivan  did 
not  cease  to  display  the  standard  of  the  holy  faith.  It  was 
remarked  that  the  day  the  ramparts  fell  the  Tsar  was  at 
church,  and  the  deacon  read  the  following  verse  from  the 
Gospel  for  the  day :  "  There  shall  be  one  flock,  one  shep- 
herd." It  was  with  the  cry  of  "  God  with  us  ! "  that  the 
Russians  precipitated  themselves  into  the  town.  The  tri- 
umph of  Moscow  mingled  with  that  of  Christianity  and  or- 
thodoxy. 

The  political  consequences  of  the  taking  of  Kazan  were  con- 
siderable. The  five  Finnish  or  Mongol  tribes  who  had  been 
subject  to  this  royal  city  —  the  Tcheremisa,  the  Mordva,  the 
Tchuvashi,  whom  M.  Radlow  considers  the  descendants  of 
the  Bulgarui  of  the  city  of  Bolgarui,  the  Votiaki,  and  the 
Bashkirs  —  after  a  resistance  of  some  years  were  obliged  to 
do  homage  to  Moscow.  Ivan  sent  them  missionaries  at  the 
same  time  that  he  sent  his  voievodui. 

The  fall  of  the  kingdom  of  Astrakhan  soon  followed  that 
of  Kazan.  This  great  city  was  also  divided  between  two 
parties.  In  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-four  Prince  luri  Pronski 
descended  the  Volga  with  thirty  thousand  men,  and  estab- 
lished Derbuish,  the  protege  of  Russia,  on  the  throne.  Der- 
buish,  after  a  short  time,  was  accused  of  having  an  under- 
standing with  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea ;  and  Astrakhan  was 
conquered  a  second  time,  and  finally  united  to  Russia.  The 
Nogais,  who  wandered  over  the  neighboring  steppes,  were 
forced  to  accept  the  Muscovite  protection.  Thus  the  Volga, 
that  famous  river  whose  banks  sustain  so  many  ruined  cities 
(Itil,  capital  of  the  Khazarui,  Bolgarui,  capital  of  the  Bulgarui, 
Sarai,  capital  of  the  Golden  Horde),  which  preserve  the  memory 


256  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

of  the  ancient  races  who  have  vanished  from  history,  —  the 
Volga,  that  grand  artery  of  Eastern  commerce,  now  flowed 
in  the  whole  of  its  course,  from  its  source  to  its  mouth,  through 
the  land  of  the  Tsars. 

Persian  Asia  was  thrown  open  to  Russian  influence  by 
means  of  the  Caspian ;  and  already  the  petty  princes  of  the 
Caucasus,  always  fighting  either  among  themselves  or  with 
the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea,  sought  the  alliance  of  the  successors 
of  the  Greek  Caesars.  In  order  to  keep  a  firmer  hold  on 
the  Horde  of  the  Taurid,  Ivan  took  under  his  protection  one 
of  the  two  warlike  republics  which  had  been  formed  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Crimea :  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don 
declared  themselves  subjects  of  Moscow,  the  Cossacks  of  the 
Dnieper  remained  Poles. 


CONTESTS     WITH    THE    LFVONIAN    ORDER,    POLAND,    THE 
TATARS,  SWEDEN,  AND  THE  RUSSIAN  ARISTOCRACY. 

Russia,  feeling  the  growth  of  her  forces,  felt  equally  the 
need  of  throwing  open  the  Baltic  at  the  same  time  as  the 
Black  Sea.  The  Baltic  was  even  more  necessary  to  the  Rus- 
sians, as  by  it  only  could  they  communicate  with  Western 
Europe,  and  receive  vessels,  artillery,  and  engineers.  It  was 
from  that  direction  that  Muscovy  awaited  the  increase  of 
power  that  civilization  could  alone  give  her.  Between  Mus- 
covy and  the  Baltic  lay  more  than  one  enemy :  Sweden,  the 
Livonian  knights,  Lithuania,  and  Poland.  In  fifteen  hundred 
and  fifty-four  a  war  broke  out  about  the  rectification  of  the 
frontiers  between  Ivan  the  Terrible  and  the  great  Gustavus 
Vasa ;  but  as  the  founder  of  the  Swedish  dynasty  was  not 
supported  by  his  neighbors,  the  war  was  a  short  one.  It  ter- 
minated by  a  commercial  treaty  which  gave  the  Swedish  mer- 
chants passage  through  Russia  to  India  and  China,  and  opened 
communication  through  Sweden  with  Flanders,  England,  and 
France  for  the  Russian  merchants.  Moscow  could  not  yet 


1533-1584.]  IVAN   THE   TERRIBLE.  257 

communicate  with  the  West  except  through  a  jealous  inter- 
mediary. 

Ivan  the  Terrible,  inspired  by  the  same  political  and  civil- 
izing ideas  as  Peter  the  Great,  wished  to  "  open  a  window  " 
into  Europe.  For  this  purpose  he  coveted  the  ports  of  the 
Narva,  Revel  and  Riga,  then  in  the  hands  of  the  Livonian 
Order,  against  which  he  had  some  grievances.  About  fifteen 
hundred  and  forty-seven  Ivan  sent  the  Saxon  Schlitte  into 
Germany  to  engage  for  him  a  certain  number  of  engineers 
and  artisans,  and  Schlitte  had  managed  to  collect  about  a 
hundred  people.  The  jealousy  of  the  Germans  then  awoke ; 
they  feared  that,  as  it  became  civilized,  Russia  would  also 
become  strong.  The  Livonian  Order  demanded  of  the  Em- 
peror Charles  the  Sixth  the  right  to  stop  these  strangers  on 
their  road.  None  ever  reached  Moscow.  Ivan,  then  occupied 
with  Kazan,  was  unable  to  avenge  himself;  but  when  in 
fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-four  the  envoys  of  the  Order  came 
to  Moscow  to  solicit  a  renewal  of  the  truce,  he  summoned 
them  to  pay  tribute  for  lurief,  the  ancient  patrimony  of  the 
Russian  princes.  Such  a  demand  meant  war.  In  fifteen  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  the  Russian  army  took  Narva,  Neuhausen, 
Dorpat,  and  seventeen  other  places.  The  Grand  Master 
Kettler  asked  help  of  his  neighbors.  Poland  alone  responded 
to  his  appeal,  and  Sigismond  Augustus  the  Second  concluded 
an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  the  Livonian  Order. 

At  this  juncture  an  important  revolution  took  place  in  the 
palace  of  the  Tsar.  Ivan's  relations  with  his  two  counsellors 
Silvester  and  Adashef  had  singularly  altered.  They  disagreed 
with  respect  to  the  war  with  Livonia ;  they  desired  that  after 
the  capture  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan  Ivan  should  turn  rather 
to  the  third  Mussulman  state,  the  Khanate  of  the  Crimea. 
M.  Kostomarof  gives  excellent  reasons  for  this  preference,  but 
the  reasons  in  favor  of  the  opposite  opinion  are  not  less  good. 
By  conquering  the  Crimea  the  safety  of  the  empire  would  be 
secured,  and  the  conversion  to  Islamism,  the  complete  Tatar- 

VOL.  I.  17 


258  HISTOEY   OF  EUSSrA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

ization  of  the  ancient  Taurian  tribes  still  professing  Chris- 
tianity, would  be  prevented ;  but  by  conquering  Livonia  an 
ancient  patrimony  of  the  Russian  princes  would  be  recovered, 
and  it  would  become  possible  to  enter  into  direct  relations  with 
civilized  Europe.  The  chances  of  success  were  equal.  The 
Horde  was  then  decimated  by  an  epidemic,  but  the  Livonian 
Order  was  in  the  act  of  dissolution  by  the  result  of  the  contest 
between  Catholicism  and  Protestantism.  The  difficulties  were 
equal.  In  attacking  Livonia,  Russia  would  come  in  contact 
•with  Sweden,  Denmark,  Poland,  and  Germany;  but  behind 
the  Crimea  were  the  Turks,  then  at  the  height  of  their  power, 
and  much  irritated  by  the  conquest  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan. 
Peter  the  Great  did  not  conquer  Livonia  till  after  twenty  years' 
hard  fighting  with  the  Powers  of  the  North  ;  but  how  many 
Russian  expeditions  against  the  Crimea  have  not  been  stopped 
by  the  distance,  the  difficulty  of  communication,  the  sandy 
deserts,  and  the  extreme  temperatures  ?  Catherine  the  Great 
only  conquered  the  Taurid  in  the  decadence  of  the  Turkish 
Empire,  and  after  many  campaigns,  when  she  not  only  brought 
into  play  her  armies  of  the  Danube,  but  sent  a  fleet  to  the 
Archipelago.  In  reality  both  enterprises  were  premature; 
Russia  had  not  yet  strength  to  carry  them  through.  Neither 
the  Tsar  nor  his  counsellors  were  completely  in  the  right,  but 
the  obstinacy  of  the  latter  had  a  fatal  result.  To  satisfy  both 
sides  two  wars  were  declared,  which  was  to  run  the  certain 
risk  of  a  double  check. 

The  misunderstanding  between  the  Tsar  and  his  two  min- 
isters dated  from  further  back.  Silvester  abused  his  spiritual 
influence  with  the  Tsar  and  became  more  and  more  meddle- 
some. Finally,  he  had  left  him  no  liberty ;  and  when  Ivan's 
favorite  son  died,  he  told  him  brutally  that  it  was  a  chastise- 
ment from  Heaven  for  his  indocility.  He  had  entered  into 
relations  with  boyars  whom  Ivan  justly  suspected ;  he  took 
their  part  against  the  Tsaritsa  Anastasia  (whom  he  represented 
as  a  second  Empress  Eudoxia,  the  persecutor  of  Chrysostom), 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  259 

against  the  Glinskis,  and  against  the  Romanofs.  Adashef 
followed  the  same  path.  Like  Haroun-al-Raschid's  favorites, 
the  Barmecides,  these  two  ministers  had  ended  by  appropri- 
ating all  the  power  of  their  master.  Ivan  had  patience  with 
them,  believing  them  to  be  faithful ;  but  in  fifteen  hundred 
and  fifty-three  he  fell  dangerously  ill,  and  was  thought  to 
be  at  the  point  of  death.  Then  the  boyars  resumed  their 
old  arrogance  ;  they  obstinately  refused  to  swear  allegiance  to 
the  Tsar's  son,  the  young  Dmitri,  declaring  that  they  would 
not  obey  his  maternal  relations,  the  Romanofs.  The  noisy 
discussions  reached  the  bed  of  the  sick  man,  and  his  entrea- 
ties were  despised.  The  boyars  approached  Vladimir,  Ivan's 
cousin,  who  had  also  refused  to  take  the  oaths,  and  it  was 
known  that  the  mother  of  this  ambitious  prince  was  distribut- 
ing largesses  to  the  army.  Silvester  took  the  part  of  Prince 
Vladimir  against  those  boyars  who  remained  faithful,  and  the 
family  of  Adashef  joined  with  the  mutineers.  The  faithful 
boyars  even  feared  for  the  life  of  the  Tsar ;  Ivan  could  not  be 
under  any  delusions  as  to  the  fate  awaiting  his  wife  and  his 
son  in  case  of  his  death. 

"  When  God  shall  have  worked  his  will  on  me,"  said  Ivan 
to  the  few  boyars  gathered  round  him,  "  do  not,  I  pray  you, 
forget  that  you  have  sworn  an  oath  to  my  son  and  to  me  ;  do 
not  let  him  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  boyars ;  fly  with  him  to 
some  strange  land,  whithersoever  God  will  conduct  you.  And 
you,"  he  continued,  addressing  the  Romanofs,  —  "  wherefore 
these  terrors  ?  Do  you  think  that  the  boyars  will  spare  you  ? 
You  will  fall  the  first:  die  then  rather — since  die  you  must 
—  for  my  son  and  for  his  mother ;  do  not  abandon  my  wife 
to  the  fury  of  the  boyars."  Ivan  the  Fourth  recovered,  but  he 
preserved  a  lasting  impression  of  these  days  of  anguish.  When 
we  see  him,  later  in  his  reign,  give  himself  up  to  revenge  and 
to  apparently  inexplicable  fury,  we  must  think  of  the  terrible 
vigils  of  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty -three,  of  the  scenes  of  rebel- 
lion and  violence  that  troubled  the  peace  of  his  sick-chamber, 


260  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

of  the  obstinate  refusals  to  take  the  desired  vow,  of  the  declara- 
tions of  hatred  against  the  Tsaritsa  and  her  relations,  and  of 
the  intrigues  woven  round  Vladimir  against  the  Tsarevitch 
Dmitri. 

He  had  no  more  confidence  in  his  favorites ;  both  were 
banished  from  the  Court.  Silvester  retired  to  the  Monastery 
of  Saint  Cyril,  and  was  afterwards  exiled  to  Solovetski.  Ada- 
shef  was  appointed  voievod  at  Fellin  in  Livonia,  and  later  was 
forced  to  live  at  Dorpat.  But  they  left  behind  them  a  com- 
plete administration,  a  perfect  army  of  clients.  They  had 
peopled  the  Court,  the  governments,  and  the  voievodies  with 
their  creatures.  Their  partisans  were  certain  to  agitate  and 
plot  for  the  return  of  their  chiefs.  Who  knew  how  far  these 
plots  might  go  ?  A  short  time  after  Adashef  s  disgrace  that 
Anastasia  whom  he  detested  died  suddenly.  Ivan  alleged 
that  she  was  poisoned.  Since  the  publication  of  M.  Zabielin's 
careful  studies  on  the  "  Private  Life  of  the  Tsaritsas  of  Russia  " 
this  allegation  and  others  like  it  do  not  appear  as  inconceivable 
as  they  seemed  to  Karamsin.  The  intrigues  of  Adashefs 
friends  forced  Ivan  the  Fourth  many  times  to  have  recourse 
to  severity,  but  at  this  epoch  he  was  comparatively  merciful. 

"  When  the  treachery  of  that  dog  Alexis  Adashef  and  his 
accomplices  was  discovered,"  Ivan  afterwards  writes,  "  we 
let  our  anger  be  tempered  with  mercy  ;  we  did  not  condemn 
the  guilty  to  capital  punishments,  but  only  banished  them  to 

our  different  towns Then  we  put  no  one  to  death. 

Those  who  belonged  to  the  party  of  Silvester  arid  Adashef  we 
commanded  to  separate  from  them,  and  no  longer  to  recog- 
nize them  as  chiefs.  This  promise  we  made  them  confirm  by 
a  vow,  but  they  paid  no  heed  to  our  injunction,  and  trampled 
their  oath  under  foot.  Not  only  did  they  not  separate  from 
the  traitors,  but  they  aided  them  by  all  possible  means,  and 
schemed  to  render  them  back  their  ancient  power,  and  to  set 
on  foot  against  us  a  perfidious  plot.  Then  only,  seeing  their 
wicked  obstinacy  and  unconquerable  spirit  of  rebellion,  I 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  2G1 

inflicted  on  the  guilty  the  penalty  of  their  faults."  Capital 
punishment  was  indeed  rare  at  this  epoch.  Ivan  usually  con- 
tented himself  with  demanding  a  fresh  oath  from  those  who 
were  arrested  on  the  road  to  Lithuania,  and  exacted  surety 
from  them  and  their  friends  that  they  would  not  seek  again 
to  pass  into  Poland.  Sometimes  he  condemned  them  to  the 
easy  durance  of  the  monasteries. 

What  finally  decided  the  Tsar  to  be  more  severe  in  his 
treatment  was  the  defection  of  Prince  Andrei  Kurbski,  who 
belonged  to  a  family  once  royal,  and  descended  from  Rurik. 
He  had  distinguished  himself  against  the  Tatars  on  the  Oka 
and  at  Kazan,  and,  being  a  zealous  partisan  of  Adashef  and 
Silvester,  he  was  deeply  irritated  by  their  fall.  Nominated 
general-in-chief  of  the  army  in  Livonia,  his  carelessness  al- 
lowed the  Russians  to  suffer  a  shameful  defeat.  Fifteen  thou- 
sand Russians  were  beaten  by  four  thousand  Poles  ;  or  rather, 
if  the  Polish  historian  Martin  Belski  is  to  be  believed,  forty 
thousand  Russians  by  fifteen  hundred  Poles.  Kurbski  had 
reason  to  fear  the  anger  of  the  Tsar.  He  had  been  for  some 
time  negotiating  with  the  King  of  Poland,  being  desirous  of 
obtaining  in  Lithuania  a  command,  lands,  and  advantages 
equal  to  those  he  would  lose.  At  last,  abandoning  his  wife 
and  children  to  the  Tsar's  vengeance,  he  left  Venden  and 
crossed  into  the  Polish  camp.  Thence  he  sent  to  Ivan  a  letter 
by  his  servant  Shipanof,  whose  foot,  according  to  the  tradition, 
Ivan  nailed  with  his  iron  staff  on  to  a  step  of  the  red  staircase 
while  the  message  was  being  read  to  him. 

"  Tsar  formerly  glorified  by  God  !  "  wrote  Kurbski,  "  Tsar 
who  formerly  shone  like  the  torch  of  orthodoxy,  but  who,  for 
our  sins,  art  now  revealed  to  us  in  quite  a  different  aspect, 
with  a  soiled  and  leprous  conscience,  such  as  we  could  not 
find  even  among  barbarian  infidels  !  Exposed  to  thy  cruel 
persecution,  with  a  heart  filled  with  bitterness,  I  wish  not- 
withstanding to  say  a  few  words  to  you.  O  Tsar,  why  hast 
thou  put  to  death  the  strong  ones  of  Israel  ?  Why  hast  thou 


262  HISTOEY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

slain  the  valiant  voievodui  given  thee  by  God  ?  Why  hast 
thou  shed  their  victorious  blood,  their  holy  blood,  on  the  pro- 
faned pavement  of  the  churches  of  God,  during  the  sacred 
ceremonies  ?  Why  hast  thou  reddened  the  porch  of  the 
temple  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  ?  In  what  were  they 
guilty  towards  thee,  O  Tsar  ?  Was  it  not  their  valor  which 
overthrew,  which  laid  at  thy  feet,  those  proud  kingdoms  of 
the  Volga,  before  which  thine  ancestors  were  slaves  ?  Is  it 
not  their  zeal,  their  intelligence,  to  which,  after  God,  thou 
owest  the  strong  towns  of  the  Germans  ?  And  behold  thy 
gratitude  to  these  unhappy  ones !  Thou  hast  exterminated 
whole  families  amongst  us.  Dost  thou  think  thyself  then  im- 
mortal, 0  Tsar,  or,  seduced  by  some  heresy,  dost  thou  think 
that  thou  canst  escape  the  incorruptible  Judge,  Jesus  our 
God  ?  No  ;  he  will  judge  the  whole  world,  and  chiefly  such 
proud  persecutors  as  thou  art.  My  blood,  which  has  already 
flowed  for  thee  nke  water,  will  cry  against  thee  to  our  Lord. 
God  sees  all  consciences ! "  Kurbski  then  invokes  the 
victims  of  Ivan,  and  shows  them  standing  before  the  throne 
of  God,  demanding  justice  against  their  executioner.  "  Is  it 
that  in  thy  pride  thou  trustest  in  thy  legions  to  keep  thee  in 
this  ephemeral  life,  inventing  against  the  human  race  new 
engines  of  torture  to  tear  and  disfigure  the  body  of  man,  the 
image  of  the  angels  ?  Dost  thou  reckon  on  thy  servile  flat- 
terers, on  thy  boon  companions,  on  thy  turbulent  boyars,  who 
make  thee  lose  thy  soul  and  body,  entice  thee  to  the  debauch- 
eries of  Venus,  and  sacrifice  their  children  to  vile  rites  worthy 
of  Saturn  ?  When  my  last  day  comes,  I  wish  that  this  letter, 
watered  with  my  tears,  should  be  placed  on  my  coffin."  He 
ended  by  declaring  himself  a  subject  of  Sigismond  Augustus, 
"  my  sovereign,  who,  I  hope,  will  load  me  with  favors  and 
consolations  for  my  misfortunes."  Thus  Kurbski  spoke  "  in 
the  name  of  the  strong  ones  of  Israel,  of  the  living  and  the 
dead,"  that  is,  in  the  name  of  all  the  friends  of  Adashef; 
he  made  himself  the  organ  of  their  wrath  and  complaints ; 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  263 

he  formulated  their  grievances,  and  exaggerated  them ;  he 
demanded  an  account  of  the  Tsar  of  his  conduct  towards  them, 
threatening  him  with  a  higher  tribunal,  and  dared  to  ask  if 
he  thought  himself  immortal ;  he  refused  Ivan  all  participa- 
tion in  the  glory  acquired  at  Kazan,  insulted  the  boyars  who 
surrounded  him,  and  boasted  of  the  crime  which  was  the 
most  unpardonable  in  the  eyes  of  the  Tsar,  —  the  recognition 
of  the  Polish  sovereignty. 

Kurbski's  letter  was  a  manifesto.  It  helped  to  irritate  the 
suspicions  of  the  Tsar,  already  only  too  disposed  to  imagine 
plots.  Ivan,  who  thought  himself  a  man  of  letters,  and  was 
really  one  of  the  most  learned  men  in  his  empire,  conceived  it 
necessary  to  answer  Kurbski's  letter  with  a  long  vindication, 
adorned  with  quotations  from  sacred  and  profane  authors. 
The  Tsar  and  his  rebel  subject  exchanged  many  epistles  of 
this  kind.  Ivan,  who  had  begun  by  this  time  to  justify  his 
surname  of  Terrible,  gave,  besides,  another  answer  to  Kurb- 
ski's manifesto,  —  the  punishment  of  his  supposed  accomplices. 

Ivan  felt  that  he  could  no  longer  govern  with  a  Court,  a 
council  of  state,  and  an  administration  which  were  filled  with 
the  friends  of  Adashef  and  Kurbski.  Kurbski's  conduct 
shows  to  what  depths  of  treason  their  rancor  could  bring 
them.  He  was  to  return  to  devastate  Russia  with  a  Polish 
army !  Was  the  Tsar's  life  safe  in  the  midst  of  such  men  ? 
In  December,  fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-four,  Ivan  quitted 
Moscow,  with  all  his  friends,  servants,  and  treasures,  and 
retired  to  the  Sloboda  Alexandrof.  He  then  wrote  two  letters 
to  Moscow,  —  one  to  the  archbishop,  complaining  of  the  plots 
and  infidelity  of  the  nobles  and  the  complicity  of  the  clergy, 
who,  abusing  the  right  of  intercession,  prevented  the  sover- 
eign from  punishing  the  guilty ;  in  the  other  he  reassured  the 
citizens  and  people  of  Moscow  by  informing  them  that  they 
were  not  included  in  his  censure.  The  terror  of  the  capital 
was  great ;  the  people  trembled  at  the  thought  of  falling  again 
under  the  government  of  the  oligarchs ;  the  boyars  feared 


264  HISTOET  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

what  the  people  might  do  to  them.  Neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  could  resign  themselves  to  the  anger  of  the  sovereign. 
The  boyars  and  the  clergy  resolved  to  ask  pardon,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  "carry  their  heads  "  to  the  Tsar.  They  went  in 
procession  to  the  Sloboda  Alexandrof,  to  beseech  him  to  recall 
his  abdication.  Ivan  consented  to  resume  the  crown,  but 
on  his  own  conditions.  As  he  could  neither  govern  with 
the  actual  administration  nor  destroy  it,  as  he  was  forced  to 
respect  its  vested  interests,  he  made  a  sort  of  partition  of  the 
monarchy.  The  greater  part  of  the  empire  continued  to  be 
governed  by  the  council  of  the  boyars,  and  constituted  the 
zemshtchina,  that  is,  the  "  rule  of  the  country."  Over  this 
part  of  Russia  Ivan  reserved  only  a  general  supervision,  and 
the  right  of  punishing  treason.  The  other  part  was  placed 
under  the  Tsar's  "  personal  and  individual "  government,  and 
formed  his  body-guard.  Leaving  the  ancient  Court,  the  an- 
cient council,  and  the  ancient  administration  still  in  exist- 
ence, Ivan  the  Fourth  formed  with  his  own  favorites  a  new 
Court,  a  new  council,  and  a  new  administration,  to  which  he 
confided  the  towns  and  villages  that  had  fallen  to  his  share. 
He  surrounded  himself  with  a  special  guard,  called  "  the  thou- 
sand of  the  Tsar,"  who  had  adopted,  as  their  "  canting  arms," 
a  dog's  head,  and  a  broom  suspended  from  their  saddles. 
They  were  ready  to  bite  the  enemies  of  the  Tsar,  and  to  sweep 
treason  off  the  Russian  soil.  This  singular  regime  lasted 
seven  years,  from  fifteen  hundred  and  sixty -five  until  fifteen 
hundred  and  seventy-two. 

Ivan  made  great  use  of  his  right  to  punish  traitors,  or  those 
whom  he  regarded  as  such.  A  perfect  reign  of  terror  hung 
over  the  Russian  aristocracy,  with  alternations  of  calm  and 
fresh  bursts  of  madness.  We  know  the  names  of  his  victims, 
but  we  do  not  always  know  their  crimes.  The  writers  hostile 
to  Ivan  the  Fourth  —  Kurbski,  the  Italian  Guagnini,  then  in 
the  service  of  the  King  of  Poland,  and  the  German  refugees 
Taube  and  Kruse  —  are  not  always  agreed  on  the  subject. 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  265 

So  far  as  we  can  clearly  comprehend  the  facts,  we  see  that 
Ivan  had  real  grievances  against  the  nobles  whom  he  put  to 
death.  On  the  side  of  the  oligarchs  the  strife,  though  quiet 
and  noiseless,  was  not  less  desperate.  We  ought  not  to  be 
deceived  by  their  demonstrations  of  humility  and  submission. 
With  their  foreheads  in  the  dust,  they  could  still  conspire. 
We  must  beware  of  thinking  Ivan's  enemies  were  any  better 
than  himself.  They  were  as  cruel  towards  their  inferiors  as 
the  Tsar  was  towards  them.  This  aristocracy  of  slave-masters, 
habituated  under  the  Tatar  yoke  to  an  insolent  disdain  of 
human  life  and  feeling,  was  not  superior  in  morality  to  its 
tyrant.  It  presented  more  than  one  type  similar  to  the  French 
monsters  Gilles  de  Retz  and  the  Sieur  de  Giac.  Under  very 
different  colors,  it  was  the  same  battle  that  raged  in  Russia 
and  in  France.  But  in  France  men  fought  in  open  day,  on 
the  battle-fields  of  the  Praguerie  or  of  the  League  of  the  Pub- 
lic Good ;  in  Russia  the  contest  was  carried  on  by  silent  plots, 
by  noiseless  attempts  to  poison  or  slay  by  magic,  met  by  the 
axe  of  the  executioner.  In  this  sinister  dialogue  between  the 
master  and  his  subjects  it  was  naturally  the  master  who  spoke 
the  loudest.  In  the  absence  of  a  sufficient  number  of  authen- 
tic documents  we  risk  nothing  by  being  a  little  more  sceptical 
than  Karamsin. 

The  principal  episodes  of  this  autocratic  reign  of  terror 
are :  — 

The  deposition  and  perhaps  the  murder  of  Saint  Philip, 
Archbishop  of  Moscow,  who  was  guilty  of  having  nobly  inter- 
ceded for  the  condemned,  and  of  hating  Ivan's  body-guard. 

The  execution  of  Alexandra,  widow  of  luri  and  sister-in- 
law  of  Ivan  ;  of  Prince  Vladimir  and  his  mother,  the  ambi- 
tious Evfrosinia,  who  thus  expiated  their  intrigues  of  fifteen 
hundred  and  fifty-three.  We  must  remark  that  Ivan,  what- 
ever Kurbski  may  say,  spared  Vladimir's  children,  and  largely 
provided  for  them. 

The  chastisement  of  Novgorod,  where,  it  seemed  to  Ivan,  the 


266  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

aristocratic  party  had  entertained  the  project  of  opening  the 
gates  to  the  King  of  Poland,  and  where  the  Tsar,  according 
to  his  own  testimony,  put  to  death  fifteen  hundred  and  five 
persons. 

The  great  execution  in  the  Red  Place  in  fifteen  hundred 
and  seventy-one,  where  a  certain  number  of  Muscovites  and 
Novgorodiaus  were  slain,  and  where  many  of  Ivan's  new 
favorites,  notably  Viazemski  and  the  Basmanofs,  underwent 
the  same  penalty  as  his  old  enemies. 

A  curious  memorial  has  been  left  us  of  the  vengeance  of 
"  the  Terrible  " ;  it  is  the  synodical  letter  of  the  Monastery  of 
Saint  Cyril,  in  which  Ivan  asks  the  prayers  of  the  Church  for 
each  of  his  victims  by  name.  This  list  shows  a  total  of  three 
thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy  victims,  of  whom  nine 
hundred  and  eighty-six  are  mentioned  by  name.  Many  of 
these  names  are  followed  by  this  sinister  statement,  "with 
his  wife,"  "  with  his  wife  and  children,"  "  with  his  daughters,'' 
"  with  his  sons."  It  was  this  that  Kurbski  called  "  the  exter- 
mination of  entire  families."  The  constitution  of  the  Russian 
family  at  this  epoch  was  so  strong,  that  the  death  of  the  head 
necessarily  involved  that  of  the  other  members.  Other  col- 
lective indications  are  not  less  significant.  For  example : 
"  Kazarin  Dubrovski  and  his  two  sons,  with  ten  men  who 
came  to  their  help  " ;  "  twenty  men  of  the  village  of  Kolo- 
menskoe,"  "eighty  of  Matveishe,"  —  these  were  no  doubt 
peasants  and  men-at-arms  who  tried  to  defend  their  masters. 
There  is  this  mention  relative  to  the  Novgorod :  "  Remember, 
Lord,  the  souls  of  thy  servants,  to  the  number  of  fifteen  hun- 
dred and  five  persons,  Novgorodians."  Had  not  Louis  the 
Eleventh  tender  feelings  of  this  nature?  He  prayed  with 
fervor  for  the  soul  of  his  brother,  the  Duke  de  Berri. 

Other  records  demonstrate  that  Ivan  the  Terrible  thought 
he  had  serious  reasons  to  fear  for  his  life.  His  curious  corre- 
spondence with  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  proves  this,  as  he 
obtains  of  her  in  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy  the  formal  prom- 


(v  vv.'i   a 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.  267 

ise  that  in  case  of  misfortune  he  should  find  in  England  a  safe 
asylum  and  the  free  exercise  of  his  religion.  There  is,  besides, 
his  will  of  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy-two,  which  contem- 
plates the  case  of  his  being  "proscribed  by  his  boyars  and  ex- 
pelled by  them  from  the  throne,  and  being  obliged  to  wander 
from  country  to  country,"  and  recommends  to  his  sons  to  live 
on  good  terms  with  each  other  after  his  death,  to  learn  how 
to  restrain  and  reward  their  subjects,  and  above  all  to  be  on 
the  watch  against  them. 

During  this  terrible  intestine  strife  the  war  with  Livonia 
and  her  ally,  the  King  of  Poland,  continued.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  help  of  the  latter,  the  Knights  were  everywhere  beaten, 
and  their  fortresses  taken  by  the  Russian  troops. 

At  last,  ruined  by  so  many  blows,  this  famous  Order  dis- 
solved. The  Isle  of  (Esel  was  sold  to  Denmark ;  Revel  was 
given  to  the  Swedes  ;  Livonia  was  ceded  by  the  Grand  Master 
to  Poland;  Kettler  reserved  to  himself  Kurland  and  Semi- 
gallia,  which  were  erected  into  a  hereditary  duchy.  There 
were  no  more  Livonian  knights,  but  Poland,  as  heir  of  the 
quarrels  of  Livonia,  became  more  than  ever  ardent  in  the 
struggle.  The  Russians  sustained  their  new  reputation.  In 
fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-three  Ivan  the  Terrible,  with  a 
numerous  army  and  many  guns,  besieged  and  took  Polotsk,  a 
very  important  position  from  its  proximity  to  Livonia  and  its 
situation  on  the  Dwina,  the  grand  commercial  route  to  Riga. 
In  spite  of  a  victory  at  Orsha,  the  King  of  Poland  demanded 
a  truce  in  fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-six. 

Ivan  at  this  moment  offered  a  strange  spectacle  to  Russia. 
To  deliberate  on  the  request  of  Sigismond  he  assembled  a  coun- 
cil, composed  of  the  higher  clergy,  the  boyars  who  had  pos- 
sessions on  the  frontiers  of  Lithuania  and  were  well  acquainted 
with  the  local  topography,  and  finally  the  merchants  of  Mos- 
cow and  Smolensk.  This  despot,  who  founded  autocracy  in 
blood,  convoked  real  States-general ;  he  made  an  appeal  to 
their  opinion,  as  he  had  many  times  before,  when  from  the 


268  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

stone  tribune  of  Lobnoe  miesto  he  harangued  the  three  orders. 
The  Assembly  decided  that  the  Polish  King's  conditions  could 
not  be  accepted,  and  offered  men  and  money  for  the  continua- 
tion of  the  war.  This  was  prolonged  for  four  years,  and 
ended  in  a  truce.  The  Tsar,  who  saw  difficulties  accumu- 
lating in  Livonia,  conceived  an  expedient  to  enable  him  to 
escape  them.  No  longer  hoping  to  be  able  directly  to  unite 
the  Baltic  ports  to  his  empire,  he  offered  the  title  of  King  of 
Livonia  to  the  Danish  Prince  Magnus,  and  made  him  marry 
a  daughter  of  that  same  Prince  Vladimir  whom  he  had  put 
to  death.  Magnus,  nominal  King  of  Livonia,  soon  perceived 
that  he  was  only  an  instrument  of  Muscovite  policy.  He 
intrigued  against  the  Tsar  and  wras  dethroned.  Ivan  the 
Terrible  in  person  took  Venden,  which  Magnus  had  garri- 
soned, and  massacred  the  German  soldiers  to  the  last  man. 

Unfortunately  the  war  with  Poland  wras  complicated  by  the 
raids  of  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea.  Sigismond  did  not  cease 
to  work  upon  the  khan,  who  well  understood  that  his  cause 
was  allied  with  that  of  Poland.  The  Tsar,  however,  over- 
powered the  khan,  took  Kief,  and  established  towns  on  the 
Dnieper.  And  what  could  the  Tatars  gain  there,  after  all  ? 
Had  not  Ivan  overthrown  two  Mongol  kingdoms?  The 
Sultan  of  Stambul,  Selim  the  Second,  was  ready  to  join  in 
the  Holy  War  for  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  In  fifteen  hundred 
and  sixty-nine,  seventeen  thousand  Turks,  commanded  by  Kas- 
sim  Pasha,  and  fifty  thousand  Tatars,  led  by  the  khan,  besieged 
Astrakhan.  The  operations  dragged  on ;  the  Pasha  wished 
to  pass  the  winter  there,  but  a  sedition  broke  out  in  the  army. 
He  was  obliged  to  raise  the  siege,  and  lost  many  of  his  men 
in  the  steppes  of  the  desert.  Two  years  after,  the  khan 
Devlet-Ghirei  invaded  Russia  with  twenty  thousand  men. 
Was  he  aided  by  the  treachery  of  the  voi'evodui  ?  He  crossed 
the  Oka,  and  suddenly  appeared  under  the  walls  of  Moscow. 
He  burned  the  suburbs,  and  the  fire  spread  to  the  town, 
which,  with  the  exception  of  the  Kreml,  was  completely 


1533-1584.]  IVAN   THE  TERRIBLE.  269 

reduced  to  ashes.  A  foreign  author  gives  the  evidently  exag- 
gerated number  of  eight  hundred  thousand  victims.  The 
khan  retired  with  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  prisoners, 
and  despatched  the  following  insolent  message  to  Ivan :  "  I 
burn,  I  ravage  everything  because  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan. 
I  came  to  you  and  I  burnt  Moscow.  I  wished  to  have  your 
crown  and  your  head,  but  you  did  not  show  yourself;  you 
declined  a  battle,  and  yet  you  dare  to  call  yourself  a  Tsar  of 
Moscow.  Will  you  live  at  peace  with  me  ?  Yield  me  up 
Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  If  you  have  only  money  to  offer  me, 
it  would  be  useless,  were  it  the  riches  of  the  whole  world. 
What  I  want  is  Kazan  and  Astrakhan.  As  to  the  roads  to 
your  empire,  I  have  seen  them,  —  I  know  them."  He  re- 
turned the  following  year,  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy-two, 
but  Prince  Mikhail  Vorotinski  met  him  on  the  banks  of  the 
Lopasnia  and  inflicted  on  him  a  complete  defeat. 

The  same  year,  that  of  the  massacre  of  Saint  Bartholomew, 
died  Sigismond  Augustus  the  Second,  King  of  Poland.  His 
reign  was  especially  memorable  for  the  union  of  Lublin,  in 
fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-nine,  in  virtue  of  which  Poland  and 
Lithuania  were  henceforth  to  form  only  one  state  under  an 
elective  prince.  Thus  Poland  enfeebled  royal  power  at  home 
just  when  it  acquired  in  Russia  an  extraordinary  degree  of 
energy.  A  party  of  nobles  was  formed  at  Warsaw  who 
wished  to  elect  the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  as  King  of  Po- 
land. This  was  to  prepare  for  the  reunion  of  the  two  great 
Slav  empires,  separated  less  by  language  than  religion,  whose 
growing  antagonism  could  terminate  only  in  the  ruin  of  one 
of  them,  to  the  great  advantage  of  the  German  race.  Ivan 
coveted  the  crown,  not  for  his  son,  but  for  himself.  We  see 
him  paying  court  to  the  Polish  ambassadors,  and  trying  to 
defend  himself  against  the  accusations  of  cruelty  and  tyranny 
which  the  banished  Muscovites  brought  against  him. 

"  If  your  lords,  who  are  now  without  a  king,"  said  he 
to  the  Polish  envoy  Voropai,  "  desire  me  for  their  sovereign, 


270  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

they  will  see  what  a  good  protector  and  kind  master  they  will 
find  in  me.  Many  among  you  say  that  I  am  cruel.  It  is 
true  that  I  am  cruel  and  irascible,  —  I  do  not  deny  it ;  but  to 
whom,  I  ask  you,  am  I  cruel  ?  I  am  cruel  towards  any  one 
that  is  cruel  to  me.  The  good  !  ah,  I  would  give  them  with- 
out a  moment's  hesitation  the  chain  and  the  robe  that  I  wear ! 
It  is  by  no  means  wonderful  that  your  princes  love  their  sub- 
jects if  their  subjects  love  them.  Mine  have  delivered  me 
over  to  the  Tatars  of  the  Crimea.  My  vo'ievodui  did  not  even 
warn  me  of  the  arrival  of  the  enemy.  Perhaps  it  was  diffi- 
cult for  them  to  vanquish  a  force  so  superior  to  them  in  num- 
bers; but  even  if  they  had  lost  some  thousands  of  men,  and 
brought  me  only  a  whip  or  a  cane  of  the  Tatars,  I  should 
have  been  grateful.  Think  of  the  enormity  of  their  treason 
towards  me.  If  some  of  them  were  afterwards  chastised,  it 
was  for  their  crimes  they  were  punished.  I  ask  you,  —  do 
you  spare  traitors  ?  "  Ivan  then  spoke  of  his  grievances 
against  Kurbski,  and  ended  by  promising  "to  observe  the 
laws,  to  respect  and  even  to  extend  the  liberties  and  fran- 
chises of  Poland." 

The  ambassador  of  France  at  Warsaw  finally  carried  the 
day,  and  Henri  de  Valois,  Due  d'Anjou,  was  proclaimed  king. 
He  did  not  stay  long  in  Poland,  and  after  his  flight  to  the 
West  a  new  Diet  assembled,  and  the  intrigues  of  the  rival 
Courts  began  again. 

Stephan  Batory,  voi'evod  of  Transylvania,  was  elected  king. 
He  was  a  young,  ambitious,  and  energetic  prince,  and  no 
more  formidable  enemy  to  Ivan  the  Terrible  in  his  old  age 
could  have  been  chosen.  It  was  now  not  only  a  question  of 
the  conquest  of  Livonia  which  was  pursued  so  laboriously  in 
the  face  of  so  many  obstacles,  but,  in  placing  the  crown  on  his 
head,  Batory  had  sworn  to  give  back  to  Poland  the  towns 
conquered  from  it  by  the  Muscovite  princes.  It  was  now  a 
contest  between  the  semi-barbarous  army  of  Russia,  its  almost 
feudal  soldiery,  its  Tatar  cavalry,  its  tactics  of  routine,  and  its 


1533-1584.]  IVAN   THE   TERRIBLE.  271 

feeble  artillery,  and  a  disciplined  European  army,  a  well-directed 
artillery,  compact  regiments  of  German  mercenaries,  and  Hun- 
garian veterans  seasoned  by  many  combats.  Ivan  awaited 
his  enemy  in  Livonia,  when  suddenly  Batory  appeared  before 
Polotsk  and  took  it,  in  spite  of  a  vigorous  resistance.  The 
Russian  gunners  hung  themselves  by  their  guns  in  despair. 
This  and  the  following  years  were  marked  by  the  capture  of 
many  Russian  fortresses.  Batory,  the  hero  of  the  North, 
the  Charles  the  Twelfth  of  Ivan's  age,  seemed  ready  to  anni- 
hilate the  work  of  a  long  reign,  and  to  check  the  first  effort 
of  Russia  to  escape  from  a  state  of  barbarism.  The  Swedes 
on  their  side,  commanded  by  De  la  Gardie,  took  Kexholm  in 
Karelia,  and  invaded  Esthonia.  Old  Pskovian  and  Novgoro- 
dian  Russia  was  invaded.  In  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-one 
Batory  besieged  Pskof,  whilst  De  la  Gardie  captured  Narva, 
Ivangorod,  lam,  and  Koporie.  But  Pskof  marked  the  limit 
of  Batory's  successes.  This  little  town  was  defended  with 
so  much  energy  by  Ivan  Shuiski  that,  after  a  three  months' 
siege  and  many  assaults,  Poles  and  Hungarians  had  to  con- 
fess themselves  vanquished. 

Ivan  had  ceased  to  appear  at  the  head  of  his  troops,  think- 
ing that  a  prince  who  is  not  sure  of  his  peers  would  be  foolish 
if  he  risked  himself  in  a  battle,  —  a  conclusion  to  which  Louis 
the  Eleventh  had  come  at  Montlhery.  His  diplomatic  rela- 
tions still  remained  for  him  to  direct.  Threatened  by  Batory, 
he  had  .recourse  to  an  expedient.  He  implored  the  mediation 
of  Pope  Gregory  the  Thirteenth  between  the  Catholic  king  . 
and  himself.  The  Pontiff  sent  to  Moscow  the  Jesuit  Antonio 
Possevino,  with  orders  at  the  same  time  to  negotiate  the  union 
with  the  two  Churches.  Posse  vino's  account  shows  us  Ivan 
the  Terrible  in  his  true  light ;  almost  free-thinking,  inquisi- 
tive, and  sometimes  disposed  to  see  the  humorous  side  of 
things,  with  ideas  of  tolerance  remarkable  for  his  time.  If 
the  Pope's  envoy  failed  in  the  religious  part  of  his  mission, 
he  at  least  succeeded  in  concluding  a  truce  between  the  two 


272  HISTORY  OP  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

sovereigns,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-two,  by  which  Ivan 
had  to  cede  Polotsk  and  all  Livonia.  This  bold  enterprise  for 
opening  the  Baltic  Sea,  which  preceded  by  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  that  of  Peter  the  Great,  thus  fell  miserably  to  the 
ground.  The  fruit  of  thirty  years'  efforts  and  sacrifices  was 
lost. 

THE    ENGLISH  IN  KUSSIA.  —  CONQUEST  OF  SIBERIA. 

Writers  hostile  to  Ivan  love  to  contrast  the  end  of  his  reign 
—  his  personal  government  —  with  his  early  years,  when  Sil- 
vester and  Adashef  were  in  power.  In  the  first  period  there 
was  nothing  but  success  ;  Kazan  and  Astrakhan  were  con- 
quered. In  the  second  period  the  Russians  were  vanquished 
by  the  Poles  and  Swedes ;  they  were  expelled  from  Livonia ; 
they  lost  Polotsk,  and  saw  Moscow  burnt  by  the  Khan  of  the 
Crimea.  The  meaning  of  these  facts  really  is  that'  the  Rus- 
sian arms  were  triumphant  in  the  East  against  barbarians 
ignorant  of  the  military  art,  and  unfortunate  in  the  West, 
where  they  had  to  contend  with  the  artillery,  the  tactics,  the 
discipline,  and  the  troops  of  Europe.  Ivan  needed  more  wit 
to  be  defeated  as  he  was  in  Livonia  than  to  win  as  he  did  in 
Kazan.  It  is  no  dishonor  for  the  Russia  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury to  have  failed  in  this  great  undertaking,  since  Peter,  with 
all  his  genius,  spent  twenty-five  years  in  the  same  task.  This 
unlucky  period  of  the  reign  of  Ivan  was  not  without  fruit  for 
the  grandeur  and  civilization  of  Russia.  The  Germans  closed 
to  it  the  Baltic,  the  English  opened  for  it  the  White  Sea. 

Under  Edward  the  Sixth  a  company  of  merchant  venturers 
was  formed  for  the  discovery  of  "  regions,  kingdoms,  islands, 
and  places  unknown  and  unvisited  by  the  highway  of  the  sea." 
Sebastian  Cabot,  chief  pilot  of  England,  was  nominated  gov- 
ernor for  life.  In  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-three,  three  vessels, 
under  the  command  of  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby  and  Chancellor, 
set  sail  towards  the  northeast,  towards  that  strange  sea  spoken 
of  by  Tacitus  —  "a  sluggish  mere  and  motionless  —  which 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  273 

forms  the  girdle  of  the  world,  where  you  hear  the  sound  of 
sun-rising ! "  That  sea  must  lead,  men  thought,  to  China. 
On  the  coasts  of  Scandinavia,  near  Vardehuus,  a  frightful 
tempest  arose  and  dispersed  the  squadron.  Willoughby  dis- 
appeared with  the  "  Buona  Speranza  "  and  the  "  Buona  Confi- 
denza."  Some  fishermen  afterwards  found  the  two  ships  in  a 
bay  of  the  White  Sea,  where  they  had  been  nipped  by  the 
ice,  and  all  the  sailors  who  manned  them  were  dead  of  cold 
and  hunger.  Chancellor,  with  the  "  Edward  Bonaventura," 
succeeded  in  doubling  Laponia  and  the  Holy  Cape,  pene- 
trated first  into  an  unknown  sea,  and  then  into  the  mouth  of  a 
river  near  which  was  a  monastery.  The  sea  was  the  White 
Sea,  the  river  the  Dwina,  the  monastery  that  of  Saint  Nicholas. 
Chancellor  learned  with  astonishment  that  he  was  on  the  terri- 
tory of  the  Tsar  of  Moscow ;  he  had  found  Russia  beneath 
the  North  Pole.  Farther  off  was  the  Monastery  of  Saint 
Michael,  near  which  was  afterwards  built  in  this  desert,  chiefly 
by  the  energy  of  the  English,  the  commercial  city  of  Saint 
Michael  the  Archangel,  usually  called  Arkhangel.  Chan- 
cellor at  once  left  for  Moscow,  and  delivered  to  Ivan  the  Ter- 
rible the  letters  which  Edward  the  Sixth,  not  knowing  where 
his  subjects  might  land,  had  addressed  vaguely  "to  all  the 
princes  and  lords,  to  all  the  judges  of  the  earth,  to  their  offi- 
cers, to  whoever  possesses  any  high  authority  in  all  the  regions 
under  the  vast  sky."  Ivan  the  Fourth  admitted  the  English 
"  to  see  his  majesty  and  his  eyes,"  feasted  them  in  the  Golden 
Palace,  and  gave  them  a  letter  for  their  king,  in  which  he 
authorized  the  English  to  trade  with  his  dominions,  and  made 
them  promise  to  send  ships  to  the  Dwina. 

Mary  Tudor  succeeded  her  brother,  and  shared  the  throne 
with  her  Spanish  husband,  Philip  the  Second.  They  confirmed 
the  privileges  of  the  company  of  merchant  venturers,  and  in 
fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-six  Chancellor,  accompanied  by  Rich- 
ard Gray  and  George  Killingworth,  again  set  sail  for  the  mouth 
of  the  Dwina,  and  arrived  successfully  at  Moscow.  This  time 

VOL.   I.  18 


274  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

they  obtained  from  the  Tsar  letters-patent  formally  authorizing 
the  members  of  the  company  to  establish  themselves  at  Khol- 
mogory  and  at  Vologda,  and  to  trade  east  and  west.  During 
this  time  Stephen  Burroughs,  in  the  "  Searchthrift,"  navigated 
the  east,  gained  the  shores  of  the  country  of  the  Samoyedui, 
touched  on  the  islands  of  Nova  Zembla  and  Vaigats,  and  was 
only  checked  by  the  approach  of  the  dark  polar  winter. 

Chancellor's  two  vessels, —  the  "  Edward  Bonaventura"  and 
the  "  Philip  and  Mary,"  —  which  had  discovered  the  missing 
ships  of  Willoughby,  departed  for  England.  The  former  had 
on  board  Osip  Nepei,  governor  of  Vologda,  the  first  Russian 
ambassador  that  had  been  seen  in  England,  accompanied  by  a 
suite  of  sixteen  Russians,  and  carrying  a  letter  and  presents 
from  Ivan  the  Fourth.  A  tempest  scattered  the  fleet,  sent  the 
"  Philip  and  Mary  "  as  far  as  the  coast  of  Norway,  sunk  the 
"  Speranza "  and  the  "  Confidenza,"  and  threw  the  "  Bona- 
ventura "  on  the  inhospitable  rocks  of  Inverness.  Chancellor 
succeeded  in  saving  the  Russian  envoy,  but  perished  himself, 
with  his  son  and  nearly  all  the  crew.  The  cargo  and  the 
presents  of  the  Tsar  were  plundered  by  the  savage  natives  of 
the  country. 

Twelve  miles  from  London  Osip  Nepei  was  received  by 
eighty  merchants  of  the  company,  mounted  on  magnificent 
horses,  and  adorned  with  heavy  chains  of  gold.  He  now  be- 
came acquainted  with  "  all  the  solid  respectability  of  old  Eng- 
land." His  train  was  increased  by  new  squadrons  of  merchants 
and  gentlemen  as  they  approached  the  town,  and  he  made  his 
triumphal  entry  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  February,  fifteen  hun- 
dred and  fifty-seven.  After  having  been  harangued  by  the 
Lord  Mayor,  received  by  the  Queen  and  the  King,  feasted  by 
the  corporation  of  drapers,  he  departed  for  Russia  with  letters* 
patent  granting  Russian  merchants  in  England  a  reciprocity 
of  privileges.  England  did  not  undertake  many  obligations. 

Nepei  this  time  was  accompanied  by  Jenkinson,  an  admi- 
rable type  of  an  English  sailor,  bold,  indefatigable,  ready  for 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  275 

anything ;  a  merchant,  an  administrator,  a  diplomat  at  need, 
who  had  already  visited  all  the  seas  of  Europe,  and,  in 
despair  at  England  not  being  able  to  contest  the  Mediterra- 
nean with  its  Venetian  rival,  wished  to  secure  it  a  new  passage 
by  Russia  to  the  East.  His  open  character  and  wide  knowl- 
edge were  wonderfully  seductive  to  Ivan.  He  obtained  from 
the  Tsar  a  letter  of  recommendation  to  the  Asiatic  princes,  de- 
scended the  Volga,  flew  the  first  English  flag  on  the  Caspian, 
landed  on  the  coast  of  Turkestan;  plunged  with  camels  loaded 
with  merchandise  into  regions  infested  with  brigands  and 
ravaged  by  the  wars  of  the  khans  ;  was  very  nearly  massacred, 
reached  Bokhara,  and  was  lucky  enough  to  return  before  the 
city  was  sacked  by  the  Sultan  of  Samarcand  in  fifteen  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  and  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-nine.  In  another 
voyage,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-two,  he  again  crossed  the 
Caspian,  and  presented  specimens  of  English  manufacture  and 
the  letters  of  Elizabeth  to  Shah  Thamas,  King  of  Persia,  who, 
warned  by  the  friends  of  the  Turks  and  Venetians,  received  Jen- 
kinson  with  an  insulting  mistrust  and  coldness.  When  he  re- 
tired from  the  Court,  a  domestic  followed  him  carrying  a  basin 
of  sand,  and  scattered  it  to  efface  the  impure  footsteps  of  the 
"  giaour  "  on  the  soil  of  the  sacred  palace.  Jenkinson  brought 
back  to  Ivan  the  Fourth  messages  from  many  small  princes, 
notably  from  those  of  Shirvan  and  Georgia,  who  wished  to 
place  themselves  under  the  Muscovite  protection.  The  results 
of  these  voyages  were  negative.  Seeing  the  instability  of  the 
Asiatic  regions,  the  English  were  obliged  at  that  time  to  con- 
fine themselves  to  trading  in  the  territories  of  the  Tsar.  The 
latter,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  services  rendered  him  by 
Jenkinson,  authorized  them  to  trade  on  all  the  rivers  of  the 
north,  from  the  Dwina  to  the  Obi,  and  to  establish  themselves 
in  the  principal  Russian  towns, —  Pskof,  Novgorod,  Nijni- 
Novgorod,  Kazan,  Astrakhan,  and  Narva,  which  had  just  fallen 
into  the  power  of  the  Russians. 

In  fifteen  hundred  and  sixty-eight  Ivan  wished  to  conclude 


276  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

with  Elizabeth  a  treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive, 
against  Poland  and  Sweden.  He  offered  her  in  exchange  a 
monopoly  of  commerce  with  Russia,  though  this  right,  by  his 
own  showing,  weighed  more  heavily  on  his  empire  than  a 
tribute  would  have  done.  He  also  requested  her  to  sign  an 
engagement,  reciprocal  for  the  two  sovereigns,  to  furnish  each 
other  with  an  asylum  in  the  event  of  the  success  of  an  enemy, 
or  the  rebellion  of  their  subjects,  obliging  them  to  fly  from 
their  states.  Elizabeth  declined  the  offer  of  alliance,  and 
refused  to  accept  for  herself  the  offered  asylum,  "  finding,  by 
the  grace  of  God,  no  dangers  of  the  sort  in  her  dominions." 
It  was  in  fifteen  hundred  and  seventy  that  she  signed  the 
treaty  mentioned  above,  and  had  it  countersigned  by  Bacon 
and  the  principal  statesmen.  This,  however,  was  far  from 
contenting  Ivan,  as  Elizabeth  persisted  in  declining  a  refuge 
in  Russia.  The  discussion  on  this  "  great  affair,"  as  Ivan  calls 
it  in  his  letters,  was  prolonged  for  some  time  longer.  Eliza- 
beth sent  Randolph,  Jenkinson,  and  Daniel  Silvester  to  Russia. 
Ivan  was  represented  in  London  by  Andrei  Sovin,  Pisemski, 
and  the  English  merchant,  Horsey. 

The  last  envoy  of  England  in  Ivan's  reign  was  Jerome 
Bowes,  charged  to  explain  to  the  Tsar  the  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  his  project  of  marriage  with  Lady  Mary  Hastings, 
Elizabeth's  cousin.  Notwithstanding  his  heaviness  and  want 
of  tact,  Bowes  obtained  great  credit  with  the  Tsar,  who  some- 
times said  to  him,  "  May  it  please  God  that  my  servants  prove 
as  faithful !  "  Bowes  profited  by  his  favor  to  get  the  privileges 
of  the  English  increased,  but  he  made  himself  many  enemies 
at  Court,  and  was  severely  maltreated  during  the  reaction  that 
followed  Ivan's  death.  The  relations  were  renewed  in  Feodor's 
reign  by  Horsey,  and,  above  all,  by  Fletcher,  author  of  a  curious 
account  of  Russia. 

French  merchants  had  also  brought  to  Ivan  a  letter  of  Henry 
the  Third,  and  had  settled  themselves  in  Moscow.  Other  en- 
voys arrived  from  Holland,  Spain,  and  Italy,  to  try  to  rival 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.  277 

the  English;  but  the  latter,  who  had  been  the  first  to  reach 
Russia,  kept  the  pre-eminence. 

In  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-eight  the  Tsar  granted  Gregory 
Strogonof  ninety-two  miles  of  desert  land  on  the  banks  of  the 
Kama.  Here  the  Strogonofs  created  many  centres  of  popula- 
tion, and  began  to  explore  the  mineral  wealth  of  the  Urals. 
Their  colonists  even  passed  the  "  mountain  girdle,"  and  came 
in  contact  with  the  kingdom  of  Siberia.  The  Strogonofs,  as 
audacious  as  the  Spaniards,  dreamed  of  the  conquest  of  this 
vast  empire,  and  requested  authority  of  the  Tsar  to  take  the 
offensive  against  the  Tatars.  To  fight,  an  army  was  necessary. 
Russia  was  so  full  of  vigor,  that  the  most  impure  elements 
often  became  the  agents  of  her  security  and  progress.  The 
Good  Companions  of  the  Don  had  more  than  once  excited 
the  Tsar's  anger  by  pillaging  the  travellers  and  boats  on  the 
royal  road  of  the  Volga.  They  had  not  always  respected  the 
possessions  of  the  Crown.  One  of  these  brigand  chiefs,  the 
Cossack  Irmak  Timofeevitch,  obtained  pardon  from  the  Tsar, 
and  took  service  with  the  Strogonofs.  At  the  head  of  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  men  —  Russians,  Cossacks,  Tatars,  German 
and  Polish  prisoners  of  war  —  he  crossed  the  Urals,  terrified 
the  natives  by  the  novelty  of  firearms,  traversed  the  immense 
untrodden  forests  of  Tobol,  defeated  the  Khan  Kutchum  in 
many  battles,  took  Sibir,  his  capital,  and  made  his  cousin 
Mametkul  prisoner.  Then  he  subjugated  the  banks  of  the 
Irtuish  and  the  Obi,  and  consoled  the  last  years  of  the  Tsar  by 
the  news  that  he  had  conquered  him  a  new  kingdom  and  added 
to  all  his  other  crowns  that  of  Siberia.  Ivan  also  sent  bishops 
and  priests  into  his  new  dominions.  Irmak,  after  having 
finished  his  conquest  and  thrown  open  the  communications 
with  the  rich  Bokhara,  survived  Ivan  only  a  short  time.  One 
day,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-four,  he  allowed  himself  to 
be  surprised  by  his  enemies,  and  in  trying  to  swim  the  Irtuish 
sank  from  the  weight  of  the  cuirass  given  him  by  the  Tsar. 
This  rival  of  Pizarro  and  Cortez,  the  conqueror  of  a  new  world, 


278  HISTORY   OF   KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

was  reckoned  a  hero  by  the  people,  and  is  honored  as  a  saint 
by  the  Church.  Miracles  were  accomplished  at  his  tomb; 
epic  songs  celebrated  his  exploits.  The  Tatars  have  composed 
a  whole  legend  about  him. 

If  Adashef  gave  to  Russia  in  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-one 
her  first  municipal  liberties,  Ivan  had  assembled  in  fifteen 
hundred  and  fifty-six  the  first  States-general,  composed  of  the 
three  orders.  The  reformation  of  the  Church  under  Silves- 
ter was  completed  by  the  Council  of  fifteen  hundred  and 
seventy-three,  which  forbade  rich  convents  to  acquire  new 
lands  ;  and,  by  the  Council  of  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty, 
extending  the  prohibition  to  all  convents.  The  Church  could 
no  longer  acquire  property.  Ivan  the  Terrible  restrained  an 
abuse  which  troubled  all  the  public  ceremonies,  and  more  than 
once  imperilled  the  success  of  battles.  We  know  how  power- 
ful, in  the  Russia  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  family.  When  a  noble  rose  or  fell,  his  whole 
family  rose  or  fell  with  him  ;  even  the  memory  of  his  ances- 
tors and  the  future  of  his  youngest  nephews  were  concerned. 
This  is  the  reason  why  a  Russian  noble  never  consented  to 
occupy  an  inferior  place,  if  no  precedents  on  the  subject 
existed.  Court  and  camp  were  constantly  disturbed  by  the 
"  quarrels  of  precedence."  Neither  the  knout  nor  the  exe- 
cutioner's axe  could  subdue  their  resistance.  They  would 
rather  die  than  dishonor  their  ancestors.  The  "  Books  of 
Rank  "  were  consulted  on  all  occasions,  to  know  the  respec- 
tive precedence  of  the  different  families.  Ivan  the  Fourth 
forbade  all  disputes  of  rank  to  any  noble  who  was  not  the 
head  of  his  family.  This  was  only  to  restrain  the  evil ;  it 
had  yet  to  be  extirpated. 

Ivan  the  Terrible  may  be  considered  as  the  founder  of  the 
National  Guard  of  the  streltsui,  or  strelitz,  who  during  two 
hundred  years  rendered  great  services  to  the  empire.  He 
also  organized,  on  the  frontiers  threatened  by  the  Tatars,  a 
series  of  posts  and  camps  where  the  soldiers  of  the  country 
could  come  for  service. 


1533-1584.]  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.  279 

He  gathered  strangers  about  him.  He  authorized  the  min- 
ister Wettermann,  of  Dorpat,  to  preach  at  Moscow,  listened 
to  Eberfeld,  and  refused  a  discussion  with  Rosvita,  saying 
that  he  would  not  "  cast  pearls  before  swine."  He  permitted 
the  erection  of  the  first  Calvinist  and  Lutheran  churches  at 
Moscow,  thus  anticipating  the  toleration  of  the  eighteenth 
century ;  but,  on  seeing  the  people's  dislike  to  them,  he  had 
them  removed  two  versts  from  the  capital. 

Ivan's  character  was  a  strange  compound  of  greatness  and 
barbarism.  Cruel,  dissolute,  superstitious,  we  see  him  by 
turns  yielding  himself  to  the  most  shameful  excesses  with  his 
favorites,  or,  covered  with  a  monkish  garment,  heading  them 
in  processions  and  other  pious  exercises.  Like  Henry  the 
Eighth,  he  had  many  wives.  After  Anastasia  Romanof  he 
married  a  barbarian,  the  Tcherkess  Maria ;  next,  two  legiti- 
mate wives ;  then  two  more  whose  union  the  Church  refused 
to  sanction.  By  his  seventh  wife,  Maria  Nagoi,  he  had  a 
son,  another  Dmitri.  At  the  close  of  his  days  we  see  him 
seeking  an  alliance  with  foreigners,  and  asking  first  the  sister 
of  the  King  of  Poland,  and  then  a  cousin  of  Elizabeth  of 
England,  in  marriage.  His  brutal  habits  and  the  facility 
with  which  he  used  his  iron  staff  had  a  tragic  conclusion. 
In  an  altercation  with  his  son  Ivan  he  struck  him,  and  the 
blow  was  mortal.  Great  and  fierce  was  the  sorrow  of  the 
Tsar.  In  slaying  his  beloved  son,  he  had  slain  his  own  work. 
He  had  no  longer  a  successor,  since  Feodor,  the  elder  of  his 
remaining  sons,  was  feeble  in  body  and  mind ;  and  the  second 
Dmitri  was  only  an  infant.  It  was  for  successors  foreign  to 
his  race  —  for  one  of  the  detested  boyars  —  that,  at  the  price 
of  so  much  blood  and  so  many  perils,  he  had  founded  autoc- 
racy. He  survived  his  son  only  three  years,  and  died  in 
fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-four.  Without  allowing  himself 
to  be  biassed  by  Ivan's  numerous  cruelties,  the  historian 
ought  fairly  to  compare  him  with  men  of  his  own  time.  He 
ought  not  to  forget  that  the  sixteenth  century  is  the  century 


280  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XV. 

of  Henry  the  Eighth,  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  of  Catherine 
de  Medici,  of  the  Inquisition,  of  Saint  Bartholomew,  and  of 
strappados.  Was  the  Europe  of  this  era  indeed  so  far  ad- 
vanced beyond  Asiatic  Russia,  newly  escaped  from  the  Mon- 
gol yoke  ?  Ivan  the  Terrible,  in  decimating,  in  suppressing, 
in  tyrannizing  over  the  aristocracy,  at  least  put  it  out  of  their 
power  to  establish  after  him  that  lawless  gentry,  the  hidden 
danger  of  Slav  nations,  which  in  Poland,  under  the  name  of 
pospolit,  began  by  enfeebling  royalty,  and  ended  by  enfeebling 
the  nation. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

MUSCOVITE  RUSSIA  AND  THE  RENAISSANCE. 

1533  -  1584. 

THE  MUSCOVITE  GOVERNMENT. — THE  KIN  AND  THE  MEN  OF  THE  TSAR. 
—  THE  PRIKAZUI.  —  RURAL  CLASSES.  —  CITIZENS.  —  COMMERCE.  — 
DOMESTIC  SLAVERY.  —  SECLUSION  OF  WOMEN.  —  THE  RENAISSANCE  : 
LITERATURE,  POPULAR  SONGS,  AND  CATHEDRALS.  —  Moscow  IN  THE 
SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 


THE  MUSCOVITE  GOVERNMENT.  —  THE  KIN  AND  THE  MEN 
OP  THE  TSAR.  — THE  PRIKAZUL 

THE  Russia  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  is 
an  Oriental  state,  almost  without  relations  with  Europe. 
The  Livonian  knights,  the  Poles,  the  Swedes,  and  the  Danes, 
who  understood  that  it  was  only  the  barbarism  of  the  Rus- 
sians which  insured  their  inferiority  to  their  weaker  neighbors, 
took  good  care  that  neither  the  men,  the  arms,  nor  the  sciences 
of  the  West  should  reach  them.  Sigismond  threatened  the 
English  merchants  of  the  Baltic  with  death.  He  did  not 
intend  that  "the  Muscovite,  who  is  not  only  our  present 
adversary,  but  the  eternal  enemy  of  all  free  states,  should  be 
provided  with  guns,  bullets,  and  munitions ;  and,  above  all, 
with  artisans  who  continue  to  make  arms,  hitherto  unknown 
in  this  barbaric  country."  Moscow,  thanks  to  those  jealous 
precautions,  thanks  also  to  the  hatred  of  the  Russians  for 
the  "  Mussulmans  "  and  "  heretics  "  of  the  West,  remained  an 
Asiatic  Empire,  as  it  had  been  made  by  the  Tatar  invasions. 
The  patriarchal  rule  of  ancient  Slavonia  and  the  example  of 
the  Oriental  sovereigns  contributed  to  maintain  the  despotic 


282  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

principle  in  all  its  force.  The  Tsar  was  at  once  the  father 
and  the  master  of  his  subjects,  more  absolute  than  the  Khan 
of  the  Tatars  or  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople.  The  persons 
and  the  goods  of  his  subjects  were  his  property  ;  the  greatest 
lords,  the  princes  descended  from  Rurik,  were  only  his  slaves. 
"  A  petition  "  in  Russian  signifies  a  "  beating  of  the  forehead." 
The  nobles  of  the  empire  signed  their  requests,  not  with  their 
names,  loann  or  Peter,  but  with  a  lackey's  nickname,  a  servile 
diminutive,  Vania  or  Petrushka.  The  Byzantine  formula, 
"May  I  speak  and  live?"  is  exaggerated  in  the  Russian, 
"  Bid  me  not  to  be  chastised ;  bid  me  to  speak  a  word." 
Men  approached  the  Tsar  in  fear  and  trembling ;  the  people 
prostrated  themselves  before  that  terrible  iron  staff  with  which 
Ivan  was  always  armed.  He  considered  the  empire  as  his 
private  property ;  he  administered  it  with  his  own  "  people," 
who  had  succeeded  to  the  drujina  of  former  princes  ;  he  gov- 
erned it  by  the  help  of  his  own  relations  or  those  of  his  wife. 
The  sons  of  the  greatest  lords  gloried  in  serving  him  in  the 
capacity  of  gentlemen  of  the  bedchamber  or  of  waiters  at  the 
royal  table.  These  domestic  functions  led  to  the  rank  of 
boyars,  or  okol-nitchi,  the  surrounders  of  the  prince.  The 
principal  boyars  formed  the  council  of  the  empire,  assembled 
in  the  chamber  of  the  prince,  and  were  presided  over  by  him. 
On  solemn  occasions  the  general  assembly  was  convoked, 
which  was  composed  of  deputies  from  all  the  orders,  and  was 
a  sort  of  States-general  of  ancient  Russia.  The  proud  Rus- 
sian aristocracy  did  not  allow  itself  tamely  to  be  reduced  to 
this  state  of  dependence ;  but  the  princes,  scattered  as  pro- 
vincial or  municipal  governors  through  Siberia,  Kazan,  or 
Astrakhan,  or  subjected  in  the  capital  to  a  rigorous  surveil- 
lance, had  become  powerless.  To  insure  the  results  of  their 
cruel  policy,  the  successors  of  Ivan  the  Fourth  forbade  those 
who  bore  certain  too  illustrious  names  to  marry. 

When  the  Tsar  desired  to  marry,  he  addressed  a  circular  to 
the  governors  of  the  towns  and  provinces,  commanding  them 


BOSNIAN'    MERCHANT. 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   BENAISSANCE.  283 

to  send  to  Moscow  the  most  beautiful  maidens  of  the  empire, 
or  at  all  events  those  of  noble  birth.  Like  Ahasuerus  in 
the  Bible,  like  the  Emperor  Theophilus  in  the  chronicles  of 
Byzantium,  like  Louis  the  Debonair  in  the  narrative  of  the 
"  Astronomer,"  he  made  his  selection  out  of  all  these  beauties. 
Fifteen  hundred  young  girls  were  assembled  for  Vasili  Ivano- 
vitch  to  choose  from  ;  after  the  first  meeting,  five  hundred  of 
these  were  sent  to  Moscow.  The  Grand  Prince  then  made  a 
fresh  selection  of  three  hundred,  then  of  two  hundred,  then 
of  one  hundred,  then  of  ten,  who  were  examined  by  the 
doctors  and  midwives.  The  most  beautiful  and  the  healthiest 
became  the  Tsaritsa,  and  she  took  a  new  name,  as  a  sign  that 
she  was  going  to  begin  a  new  existence.  Her  father,  on  be- 
coming the  Tsar's  father-in-law,  also  changed  his  name ;  her 
relations  formed  the  prince's  Court,  became  his  companions, 
undertook  the  care  of  everything,  and  governed  the  empire 
like  the  house  of  their  imperial  relative.  The  dispossessed 
ministers  and  friends  tried  in  secret  to  reconquer  their  lost 
power  by  putting  the  new  empress  to  death,  and  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  have  recourse  to  magic  and  poison.  Many  of  these 
imperial  brides  never  survived  their  triumphs,  and,  suddenly 
attacked  by  mysterious  maladies,  died  before  their  coronation- 
day.  All  the  successors  of  Vasili  Ivanovitch,  even  including 
Alexis  Mikhailovitch,  instituted  these  assemblages  of  beauty 
for  the  choice  of  their  wives.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the 
sovereigns  of  Moscow  and  of  the  princes  of  their  blood. 

The  men  of  the  drujina,  or  the  prince's  followers,  thought  it 
beneath  their  dignity  or  above  their  power  to  serve  him  other- 
wise than  in  war  or  justice.  The  work  of  the  pen  had  to 
be  confided  to  the  sons  of  the  priests  and  merchants,  the  sec- 
retaries whose  beginnings  were  as  humble  as  those  of  the 
Capetian  lawyers,  seated  at  the  feet  of  the  peers  of  France ; 
like  them,  they  ended  by  taking  the  place  of  the  great  lords. 
The  administration  of  the  state  was  intrusted  to  twenty  or 
thirty  prikazui,  or  bureaus,  whose  numbers  and  functions 


284  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

varied  at  different  times.  There  was  notably  the  prikaz  of 
provisions,  that  of  drinks,  and  that  of  the  pantry,  which  were 
all  concerned  with  the  commissariat  of  the  Court.  The  duties 
were  very  heavy,  as  not  only  the  Tsar,  the  Tsaritsa,  and  the 
princes  of  the  blood  kept  an  open  table,  but,  in  accordance 
with  patriarchal  and  family  ideas,  the  prince  was  supposed  to 
feed  from  his  own  table  the  nobles  and  functionaries  lodged 
outside  of  the  palace.  He  was  obliged  to  send  them  daily 
cooked  meats,  wines,  and  fruits.  There  was  the  prikaz  of  the 
gold  and  silver  cup,  that  of  the  wardrobe,  of  pharmacy,  of 
horses,  of  the  falconry,  of  games,  to  which  belonged  comedians, 
buffoons,  dwarfs,  fools,  keepers  of  bears  and  dogs  ready  to 
fight  with  the  bears,  the  menagerie  of  rare  animals,  chess, 
cards,  and  in  general  everything  that  served  to  amuse  the 
Tsar.  The  prikaz  of  the  crown  had  under  its  control  the 
manufactures  fabricating  the  golden  and  silken  stuffs,  of  which 
the  prince  had  a  monopoly,  and  the  depot  of  the  precious 
Siberian  furs.  It  furnished  the  presents  to  be  distributed 
among  the  clergy,  the  boyars,  the  ambassadors  of  foreign 
powers,  and  the  Greek  monks  who  came  from  Byzantium  or 
Mount  Athos  to  ask  for  alms.  The  prikazui  of  the  great 
palace,  of  the  quarter,  of  the  revenue,  and  of  the  tax  on 
liquors  were  concerned  with  the  finances.  There  were  also 
those  of  the  imperial  family,  of  secret  affairs,  of  petitions, 
posts,  and  police ;  of  the  Tsar's  buildings,  slaves,  monasteries, 
streltsi,  embassies,  and  artillery.  The  prikazui  of  Ustiug,  of 
Kazan,  of  Galitch,  of  Kostroma,  of  Little  Russia,  and  Siberia, 
had  a  power  of  jurisdiction  in  affairs  pertaining  to  the  prov- 
inces. Usually  the  expenses  of  such  and  such  a  bureau  were 
defrayed  by  the  produce  of  taxes  on  a  given  town  or  province. 
The  state  revenues  were  composed :  of  the  income  of  the 
demesne,  including  thirty-six  towns  and  their  territory,  the 
inhabitants  of  which  paid  their  dues  either  in  kind  or  in 
money ;  of  the  taglo,  an  annual  impost  on  every  sixty  meas- 
ures of  corn ;  of  the  podat,  a  fixed  tax  on  every  dvor,  or  fire ; 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE  RENAISSANCE.  285 

the  produce  of  the  custom-houses,  and  of  the  excess  of  the 
municipal  dues  ;  the  tax  on  the  public  baths ;  the  farming-out 
of  the  Crown  taverns ;  the  fines,  the  expenses  of  justice,  and 
the  confiscations  pronounced  by  the  tribunal  of  the  brigands. 
Fletcher,  who  visited  Russia  in  the  time  of  Boris  Godunof, 
estimates  the  value  of  the  whole  of  these  revenues  at  one  million 
two  hundred  and  twenty-three  thousand  rubles  of  their  money. 
Moreover,  the  Tsar  annually  received  furs  and  other  things  from 
Siberia,  Permia,  and  the  Petchora;  he  himself  exchanged 
them  with  the  Turkish,  Persian,  Armenian,  Bokharian,  or 
Western  merchants,  who  came  to  the  fairs  or  landed  in  the 
ports  of  the  empire.  Further,  the  Crown,  after  having  allowed 
the  officers  to  gorge  themselves  some  time  by  extortions  from 
the  people,  reserved  to  itself  the  power  of  calling  them  to 
justice,  and  of  depriving  them  of  part  or  the  whole  of  their 
booty.  The  Tsar,  who,  like  the  ancient  despots  of  Egypt  and 
the  East,  had  already  monopolized  certain  branches  of  com- 
merce, kept  up  an  undignified  rivalry  with  his  own  subjects. 
He  sent  agents  into  special  provinces,  who  seized  on  all  the 
productions  of  the  country,  furs,  wax,  and  honey ;  forced  the 
proprietors  to  sell  them  at  a  low  price,  and  then  obliged  the 
English  of  Arkhangel  or  the  merchants  of  Asia  to  buy  them 
at  a  high  rate ;  he  even  laid  hands  on  the  goods  brought  by 
these  merchants,  and  made  the  Russian  tradesmen  pay  dear 
for  them,  forbidding  them  to  purchase  from  others  till  the 
Tsar's  warehouses  were  emptied.  Fletcher  exposes  many 
other  means  of  extortion,  to  which  the  Tsar's  government 
periodically  had  recourse. 

The  grades  of  courts  of  civil  justice  were  three :  the  tribu- 
nals of  the  starosta  of  the  district,  and  of  the  hundred-man,  a 
magistrate  established  for  every  hundred  ploughs ;  the  tribu- 
nal of  the  voievod,  in  the  head-city  of  each  province  ;  and  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Moscow.  In  spite  of  the  Codes  of  Ivan 
the  Third  and  Ivan  the  Fourth,  the  law  was  so  confused  and 
uncertain  that  Fletcher  said  of  it,  "  There  is  no  written  law  in 


286  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Russia."  The  mode  of  procedure  was  that  of  the  Carolingian 
age;  if  a  man  could  neither  produce  witnesses  nor  written 
proofs,  the  judge  could  take  the  oath  of  one  of  the  parties. 
Often  the  value  of  an  oath  was  confirmed  by  a  judicial  duel. 
The  champions,  says  Herberstein,  loaded  themselves  with  arms 
and  heavy  armor.  They  were  so  embarrassed  by  all  this 
weight  of  iron,  that  a  Russian  was  invariably  overcome  by  a 
foreigner,  and  Ivan  the  Third  forbade  foreigners  to  fight  with 
his  subjects.  Often  the  parties  had  themselves  represented  by 
hired  champions,  and  then  the  combat  became  a  comedy,  the 
mercenaries  thinking  only  how  to  spare  themselves. 

The  legislation  in  the  matter  of  debts  equalled  in  rigor  that 
of  the  Roman  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  The  insolvent  debtor 
was  subjected  to  the  praviozh  ;  that  is,  he  was  tied  up  half- 
naked  on  a  public  place,  and  beaten  three  hours  a  day.  This 
punishment  was  repeated  for  thirty  or  forty  days.  If  by  that 
time  no  one  was  moved  by  his  lamentations  and  cries  to  pay 
his  debt  for  him,  he  was  allowed  to  be  sold,  and  his  wife  and 
children  let  out  on  hire ;  if  he  had  none,  he  became  the  slave 
of  the  creditor.  The  penal  legislation  was  frightful.  In  cases 
of  accusation  of  theft,  murder,  or  treason,  the  accused  was 
subjected  to  tortures  worthy  of  a  Spanish  Inquisitor.  The 
punishments  were  infinitely  varied :  a  man  might  be  hung, 
beheaded,  broken  on  the  wheel,  impaled,  drowned  under  the 
ice,  or  knouted  to  death.  A  wife  who  had  murdered  her  hus- 
band "  was  buried  alive  up  to  her  neck " ;  heretics  went  to 
the  stake ;  sorcerers  were  burned  alive  in  an  iron  cage ;  coun- 
terfeiters had  liquid  metal  poured  down  their  throats.  Nor 
must  we  forget  the  death  of  "  ten  thousand  pieces,"  the  torment 
in  which  the  sides  were  torn  away  by  iron  hooks,  and  all  the 
other  varieties  of  mutilation.  On  the  other  hand,  a  noble 
who  slew  a  muzhik  was  only  fined  or  whipped.  The  noble 
who  killed  his  slave  suffered  no  penalty ;  he  could  do  what 
he  liked  with  his  own. 

Before  the  creation  of  the  patriarchate,  the  highest  dignity 


1533-1584.]          MUSCOVITE   KENAISSANCE.  287 

in  the  Russian  Church  was  that  of  the  Metropolitan  of  Moscow. 
Then  came  the  six  Archbishops  of  Novgorod,  Rostof,  Smo- 
lensk, Kazan,  Pskof,  and  Vologda ;  the  six  Bishops  of  Riazan, 
Tver,  Kolomenskoe,  Vladimir,  Suzdal,  and  Krutiski,  or  Sarai, 
whose  dioceses  were  immense.  This  Church  was  as  depen- 
dent on  the  Tsar  as  that  of  Byzantium  had  been  on  the  em- 
perors ;  at  the  expense  of  a  few  formalities  he  could  create  a 
prelate  or  a  new  see.  The  bishops  were  selected  from  the 
Black  Clergy ;  that  is,  the  monks  who  had  taken  the  vow  of 
chastity.  Their  revenues  were  large  and  their  ceremonies 
imposing.  "  As  for  exhorting  or  instructing  their  sheep,"  says 
Fletcher,  "  they  have  neither  the  habit  of  it  nor  the  talent  for 
it,  for  all  the  clergy  are  as  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  Word 
of  God  as  of  all  other  learning."  With  the  secular  or  White 
Clergy  marriage  was  not  only  a  right,  but  a  duty.  Their 
manners  and  education  hardly  distinguished  them  from  the 
peasants,  and,  like  them,  they  were  sometimes  subjected  to 
the  most  degrading  chastisements.  The  convents  were  numer- 
ous, very  full,  and  very  rich ;  that  of  Saint  Sergius,  at  Tro'itsa, 
possessed  one  hundred  and  ten  thousand  souls,  that  is,  male 
peasants.  All  broken  men  took  refuge  there ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  councils  fulminated  against  the  vagabond  monks 
who  infested  the  country.  More  than  once  the  monasteries 
served  as  prisons  for  disgraced  nobles,  who  there  led  a  gay 
and  noisy  life,  like  the  Frank  nobles  of  other  days  in  the 
cloisters  of  the  Merovingian  churches.  Delicate  meats  were 
sent  them  from  the  table  of  the  Tsar,  sturgeons,  sterlets,  figs, 
dry  raisins,  oranges,  pepper,  and  saffron. 

In  a  letter  to  the  monks  of  Saint  Cyril  on  the  White  Lake, 
Ivan  the  Fourth  blames  with  a  mixture  of  severity  and  irony 
their  lenity  towards  the  imprisoned  boyars.  "  In  my  youth," 
he  writes,  "  when  we  were  at  Saint  Cyril,  if  dinner  happened 
to  be  late,  and  if  the  intendant  asked  a  sterlet  or  any  other 
fish  of  the  cellarer,  he  would  reply, '  I  have  no  orders  about  it ; 
I  have  only  prepared  what  I  was  ordered.  Now  it  is  night, 


288  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

and  I  can  give  you  nothing ;  I  fear  the  sovereign,  but  I  fear 
God  more.' "  "  See,"  continues  Ivan,  "  what  was  the  severity 
of  the  rule.  They  fulfilled  the  word  of  the  prophet :  '  Speak 
the  truth,  and  have  no  shame  before  the  Tsar.'  To-day  my 
boyar  Sheremetief  reigns  in  his  cell  like  a  Tsar ;  my  boyar 
Khabarof  pays  him  visits  with  the  monks.  They  drink  as 
though  they  were  of  the  world.  Is  it  a  wedding?  is  it  a 
baptism  ?  The  captive  treats  them  to  fruit,  jellies,  cake,  and 
sweetmeats.  Beyond  the  monastery  there  is  a  house  filled 
with  provisions.  Some  say  that  strong  drinks  are  beginning 
to  be  smuggled  into  the  cell  of  Sheremetief.  Now  in  monas- 
teries it  is  against  the  rules  to  have  foreign  wines ;  how  much 
more,  then,  strong  liquors  !  " 

The  orthodox  faith,  deprived  of  the  stimulus  of  liberty  and 
instruction,  tended  to  become  mere  routine.  Salvation  was 
gained  by  hearing  long  liturgies,  by  multiplying  Slavonic 
orisons,  by  making  hundreds  of  prostrations  and  genuflexions, 
by  telling  rosaries,  and  by  frequenting  shrines.  The  most 
celebrated  centres  were  the  catacombs  of  Kief,  where  sleep  the 
incorruptible  bodies  of  the  saints,  and  where  dwell  their  suc- 
cessors without  ever  seeing  the  light  of  day ;  the  Monastery  of 
Saint  Cyril,  on  the  White  Lake ;  of  Saint  Sergius,  at  Tro'itsa ; 
and  the  Cathedral  of  Saint  Sophia,  at  Novgorod.  Men  pros- 
trated themselves  at  the  tombs  of  Saint  Peter  and  Saint  Alexis 
of  Moscow ;  before  the  wonder-working  virgins  of  Vladimir, 
Smolensk,  Tikhvin,  and  Pskof.  The  most  pious  journeyed  as 
far  as  the  sacred  Mount  Athos,  and  the  city  of  Constantinople, 
full  of  blessed  relics,  though  polluted  by  the  presence  of  the 
Turk ;  nay,  further  still,  to  the  tomb  of  Christ,  to  Golgotha, 
to  Mount  Sinai,  wherever  orthodox  communities  disputed  pos- 
session with  Catholic  communities. 

The  national  army  was,  like  the  Tatar  army,  chiefly  com- 
posed of  cavalry.  The  gentlemen  of  the  bedchamber,  the 
waiters  at  the  royal  table,  and  other  young  courtiers,  formed 
an  Imperial  Guard  of  about  eight  thousand  men.  All  the 


CATHEDRAL    OF   SAINT    SOPHIA    NOVGOROD. 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE  KENAISSANCE.  289 

gentlemen  of  the  empire,  nobles,  or  men-at-arms  were  con- 
fined to  the  mounted  ranks  ;  the  revenues  of  their  lands  were 
counted  as  pay  for  these  men  of  service,  the  ancient  distinc- 
tion between  the  fiefs  and  the  freeholds  was  almost  abolished. 
.  It  was  like  the  regime  of  the  fiefs  of  the  West,  or  of  the  ziama 
and  timars  of  Turkey.  This  noble  cavalry  could  reckon  eighty 
thousand  horsemen  ;  with  the  levy  of  free  peasants,  it  amounted 
to  three  hundred  thousand.  To  this  we  must  join  the  irregu- 
lar cavalry,  composed  of  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don  and  the  Terek, 
of  Tatars  and  Bashkirs.  The  national  infantry  was  made  up 
of  the  peasants  of  the  monasteries,  churches,  and  domains  ;  of 
the  slreltsui,  free  archers,  or  communal  soldiers,  organized 
in  the  time  of  Ivan  the  Fourth,  and  who,  in  Moscow  alone, 
formed  a  body  of  twelve  thousand  men.  Then  came  the 
artillery,  and  the  soldiers  detailed  for  service  at  the  gulidi- 
fforod,  the  "  city  that  walks,"  —  movable  ramparts  of  wood, 
which  were  used  both  in  sieges  and  in  the  open  country,  where 
the  Russian  troops,  if  they  were  not  protected,  showed  little 
firmness.  In  the  fifteenth  century  foreign  mercenaries  began 
to  be  enlisted,  —  Poles,  Hungarians,  Greeks,  Turks,  Scotch, 
Scandinavians,  armed  and  disciplined  after  the  European  fash- 
ion, and  enrolled  under  the  names  of  ritters,  or  riders,  foot- 
soldiers,  and  dragoons.  History  has  preserved  the  names  of 
some  of  their  leaders  :  Rosen  the  German,  and  Margeret  the 
Frenchman,  who  has  left  us  some  curious  memoirs  of  the 
False  Dmitri. 

The  equipment  of  the  national  troops  was  thoroughly 
Oriental.  They  had  long  robes,  high  saddles,  short  stirrups, 
rich  caparisons,  scale  or  ring  armor.  The  Tsar  himself  went 
into  battle  with  his  lance,  bow,  and  quiver.  The  army  was 
always  divided  into  five  divisions,  —  the  main  army,  the  right 
and  left  wings,  the  van  and  rear  guards.  Each  was  com- 
manded by  two  voievodui  of  unequal  rank,  without  counting 
the  vo'ievod  of  the  artillery  or  of  the  movable  camp,  and  the 
atamans  of  the  streltsui  and  of  the  Cossacks.  The  grades  of 

VOL.    I.  19 


290  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

the  regular  army  were  those  of  the  tuisatski,  or  chiliarch,  com- 
mander of  one  thousand,  the  centurion,  or  captain  of  one  hun- 
dred, the  commander  of  fifty,  and  the  deciatski,  or  commander 
of  ten.  All  obeyed  the  grand  voievod,  or  general-in-chief. 
Each  soldier  brought  provisions  for  four  months,  and  the  Tsar 
furnished  nothing,  except  occasionally  some  corn.  The  men 
lived  almost  entirely  on  biscuit,  dried  fish  or  bacon,  and  were 
capable  of  enduring  much  fatigue.  The  campaigns  never 
lasted  long,  and  only  part  of  the  army  was  permanent. 

From  this  time  Russia  sought  to  enter  into  regular  relations 
with  foreign  powers.  Its  diplomatic  traditions  were  those  of 
the  East  or  Byzantium.  Its  first  ambassadors  were  the  Greek 
Demetrios  Trakhaniotes,  and  the  Italian  Marco  Ruffo,  sent 
into  Persia.  They  treated  with  most  deference  the  neighbor- 
ing states,  not  those  which  were  most  powerful.  Whilst  they 
sent  a  simple  courier  to  the  Emperor,  and  the  kings  of  France, 
England,  and  Spain,  they  despatched  boyars,  accompanied  by 
secretaries,  to  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Poland.  The  prikaz 
of  the  embassies,  which  had  under  its  orders  fifty  translators 
and  seventy  interpreters  of  all  languages,  gave  them  their  safe- 
conduct,  detailed  instructions,  letters  for  the  foreign  sovereign, 
presents,  two  years'  pay,  and  a  certain  number  of  furs  or 
costly  fabrics  from  the  prikaz  of  the  Crown,  which  they  were 
to  do  their  best  to  sell  at  a  high  price.  The  Russian  am- 
bassador, like  those  of  the  Greeks  and  Tatars,  was  also  a 
commission  agent  for  the  Tsar's  benefit.  The  envoys  were 
recommended  to  avoid  all  insolence,  and  to  watch  their  men, 
but  to  display  the  greatest  luxury,  to  exact  due  payment  of  all 
honors,  and,  at  the  peril  of  their  lives,  never  to  suffer  the  Tsar's 
titles  to  be  diminished,  though  the  titles  were  rather  compli- 
cated, as  he  enumerated  all  his  subject  states.  The  mer- 
cantile preoccupations  of  the  Russian  ambassadors,  and  their 
eternal  quarrels  about  etiquette,  rendered  them  unbearable  at 
all  the  European  courts.  On  their  return  they  were  sum- 
moned before  the  Tsar,  gave  him  a  detailed  account  of  their 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   RENAISSANCE.  291 

mission,  and  handed  over  to  him  the  journal  of  their  tour  and 
the  notes  of  all  that  they  had  observed  in  the  distant  coun- 
tries. From  the  sixteenth  century  a  shrewd  and  observant 
spirit  is  noticeable  in  their  relations,  which  is  not  unworthy 
of  the  wisdom  of  their  masters,  the  Byzantines. 

When  foreign  ambassadors  arrived  in  Russia,  they  were 
treated  with  magnificence  and  yet  with  distrust.  Prom  the 
time  they  crossed  the  frontier,  they  and  their  retinue  were 
fed,  housed,  and  provided  with  carriages,  but  a  police  inspec- 
tor attached  to  their  persons  watched  carefully  that  they 
obtained  no  interviews  with  the  natives,  nor  information  about 
the  state  of  the  country.  They  were  taken  through  the  rich- 
est and  most  populous  provinces ;  the  citizens  were  every- 
where required  to  meet  them  on  their  route,  dressed  in  their 
costliest  clothes.  At  Moscow  a  palace  of  the  Tsar  was  assigned 
them  as  a  residence,  and  they  were  fed  from  his  table.  Their 
first  interview  took  place  with  great  pomp  in  the  Palace  of 
Pacets.  The  walls  of  the  hall  were  hung  with  magnificent 
tapestries ;  gold  and  silver  vessels,  of  Asiatic  form,  shone  on 
the  dais.  The  Tsar,  crown  on  head,  sceptre  in  hand,  seated 
on  the  throne  of  Solomon,  supported  by  the  mechanical  lions, 
which  roared  loudly,  surrounded  by  his  life  guard  in  long 
white  caftans  and  armed  with  the  great  silver  axe,  by  his 
sumptuously  dressed  boyars,  and  by  his  clergy  in  their  simple 
costume,  received  their  letters  of  credit.  He  asked  the  am- 
bassador for  news  of  his  master,  and  how  he  had  travelled. 
If  the  Tsar  were  not  contented  with  him,  the  ambassadors' 
palace  became  a  prison  where  no  native  was  allowed  to  pene- 
trate, and  carefully  studied  humiliations  were  practised  to 
extract  from  him  concessions  or  to  abridge  his  stay. 

RURAL  CLASSES.  —  CITIZENS.  —  COMMERCE. 

The  lower  classes  of  Muscovy  were  composed  of  three  ele- 
ments :  the  slave,  or  kholop,  properly  so  called,  the  man- 


292  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

cipium  of  the  Romans,  a  man  taken  in  war,  sold  by  himself  or 
some  one  else,  or  the  son  of  a  kholop ;  the  peasant  fixed  to  the 
lands  of  a  noble,  corresponding  to  the  colonus  adscriptitius 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  whose  person  Mras  legally  free,  but  who 
was  to  be  reduced  by  means  of  a  more  and  more  rigorous 
legislation  to  the  condition  of  serf  of  the  glebe ;  and  the 
free  cultivator,  who  lived  like  a  farmer  on  the  lands  of  an- 
other, and  had  the  right  to  change  his  master,  but  who  was 
soon  to  be  mingled  with  the  preceding  class. 

It  was  the  inscribed  peasants  who  constituted  almost  the 
whole  of  the  rural  population.  In  the  ancient  provinces  the 
peasant  might  consider  himself  as  the  primitive  inhabitant 
of  the  soil.  He  was  made  subject  to  the  gentleman  only  in 
order  to  secure  to  the  latter  an  income  sufficient  for  military 
service  ;  he  therefore  continued  to  look  on  himself  as  the  true 
proprietor.  In  these  rural  masses  the  primitive  features  of 
the  Slav  organization  were  preserved  in  all  their  vigor.  It 
was  the  commune,  or  mir,  and  not  the  individuals,  who  pos- 
sessed the  land  ;  it  was  the  commune  that  was  responsible  to 
the  Tsar  for  the  tax,  for  the  statute  labor  and  dues  to  the  lord. 
This  responsibility  armed  the  commune  with  an  enormous 
power  over  its  members,  and  this  power  was  embodied  in  the 
starosta,  assisted  by  elders.  In  the  bosom  of  the  commune 
the  family  was  not  organized  less  severely,  less  tyrannically, 
than  the  mir.  The  father  of  the  family  had  over  his  wife,  his 
sons,  married  or  single,  and  their  wives,  an  authority  almost 
as  absolute  as  that  of  the  starosta  over  the  commune  or  the 
Tsar  over  the  empire.  The  paternal  authority  became  harder 
and  more  stern  from  the  contact  with  serfage  and  the  despotic 
rule.  Ancient  barbarism  was  still  intact  among  these  igno- 
rant people ;  the  graceful  customs  or  the  savage  manners,  the 
poetic  or  cruel  superstitions  of  the  early  Slavs,  were  per- 
petuated by  them.  The  Russian  peasant  remained  a  pagan 
under  his  veneer  of  orthodoxy.  His  funeral  songs  seem  des- 
titute of  all  Christian  hope.  His  marriage  songs  preserve  the 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   RENAISSANCE.  293 

tradition  of  the  purchase  or  capture  of  the  bride.  The  sad 
lot  of  the  rustic  was  destined  to  be  made  more  and  more  bur- 
densome during  the  three  centuries  of  progress  which  the 
upper  classes  had  still  to  accomplish.  In  the  view  of  the 
state,  as  of  the  proprietor,  he  tended  more  and  more  to  become 
a  beast  of  burden,  a  productive  force  to  be  used  and  abused 
at  pleasure. 

The  Russian  towns  were  composed,  first,  of  a  fortress  or 
kreml,  generally  built  with  wooden  walls,  into  which  at  need 
a  garrison  of  militia  could  be  sent ;  next,  of  districts  or  wards 
inhabited  by  the  citizens  or  merchants.  They  were  governed 
by  voievodui  nominated  by  the  prince,  or  by  a  starosta,  or 
mayor,  who  was  elected  by  an  assembly  of  the  inhabitants, 
nobles,  priests,  or  citizens,  but  was  always  a  gentleman.  The 
starosta  governed  the  town  and  the  district  depending  on  it. 
As  the  citizens  paid  the  heaviest  taxes,  they  were  forbidden  to 
quit  the  town ;  they  were,  as  during  the  last  days  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire,  bound  to  the  city  glebe.  Alexis  Mikhailovitch 
afterwards  attached  the  pain  of  death  to  this  prohibition. 
To  assess  the  impost,  the  starosta  convoked  at  once  both  the 
deputies  of  the  town  and  those  of  the  rural  communes.  The 
impost  of  the  taglo  was  paid  by  the  town  collectively,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  fires,  and  all  the  people  were  collec- 
tively responsible  for  each  other  to  the  state. 

In  the  burgess  class  may  be  counted  the  merchants,  whose 
Russian  name,  signifying  guests  or  strangers,  shows  how  far 
commerce  still  was  from  being  acclimatized  in  this  land  and 
under  this  regime.  Muscovy  produced  in  abundance  the 
hides  of  cattle  ;  furs  from  the  blue  and  black  fox,  the  zibeline, 
the  beaver,  and  the  ermine ;  wax,  honey,  hemp,  tallow,  oil 
from  the  seal,  and  dried  fish.  From  China,  Bokhara,  and 
Persia  came  silks,  tea,  and  spices.  The  Russian  people 
are  naturally  intelligent  and  industrious,  but  still  commerce 
languished.  Fletcher,  the  Englishman,  has  assigned  as  the 
reason  for  this  decay  the  insecurity  created  by  anarchy  and 


294  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

despotism.  The  muzhik  did  not  care  either  to  save  or  to  lay 
by.  He  pretended  to  be  poor  and  miserable,  to  escape  the 
exactions  of  the  prince  and  the  plunder  of  his  agents.  If 
he  had  money,  he  buried  it,  as  one  in  fear  of  an  invasion. 
"  Often,"  says  the  English  writer,  "  you  will  see  them  trem- 
bling with  fear,  lest  a  boyar  should  know  what  they  have  to 
sell.  I  have  seen  them  at  times,  when  they  had  spread  out 
their  wares  so  that  you  might  make  a  better  choice,  look  all 
round  them,  as  if  they  feared  an  enemy  would  surprise  them 
and  lay  hands  on  them.  If  I  asked  them  the  cause,  they 
would  say  to  me,  '  I  was  afraid  there  might  be  a  noble  or 
one  of  the  men-at-arms  here  ;  they  would  take  away  my  mer- 
chandise by  force.' "  "  The  merchants  and  the  citizens,"  says 
M.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  "  could  with  difficulty  become  a  powerful 
class  in  a  country  cut  off  from  Europe  and  the  sea,  and  cut 
off,  too,  from  all  great  commercial  routes  by  the  Lithuanians, 
the  Teutonic  Order,  and  the  Tatars."  The  citizen,  like  the 
inhabitant  of  the  French  towns  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
was  only  a  sort  of  villain ;  he  wore  the  costume  of  a  peasant, 
and  lived  almost  like  him.  The  merchants  were  really 
what  they  were  called  by  Ivan  the  Terrible,  —  the  muzhiki 
of  commerce. 

DOMESTIC  SLAVERY.  —  SECLUSION  OF  WOMEN. 

Only  two  more  facts  were  needed  to  give  to  Russian  society 
the  same  Asiatic  character  which  we  noted  already  in  the 
despotism  of  the  Tsars  and  the  communism  of  the  people, — 
domestic  slavery,  and  the  seclusion  of  women. 

Besides  the  peasants  more  or  less  attached  to  the  glebe,  all 
Russian  proprietors  kept  in  their  castles,  or  in  their  town- 
houses  at  Moscow,  a  multitude  of  servants  like  those  who 
encumbered  the  senators'  palaces  in  imperial  Rome.  A  great 
lord  always  gathered  round  him  many  hundreds  of  these 
domestic  serfs,  both  men  and  women,  bought  or  born  in  the 
house,  whom  he  never  paid,  whom  he  fed  badly,  and  who 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   EENAISSANCE.  295 

served  him  badly  in  return,  but  whose  numbers  served  to  give 
an  idea  of  the  wealth  of  their  master.  The  train  of  a  noble 
on  his  way  to  the  Kreinl  may  be  compared  to  that  of  a  Jap- 
anese daimio.  A  long  file  of  sledges  or  chariots,  a  hundred 
horses,  outriders  who  made  the  people  stand  back  by  blows 
with  their  whips  ;  a  crowd  of  armed  men,  who  escorted  the 
noble ;  and  last  of  all,  a  host  of  servants,  often  with  naked  feet 
beneath  their  magnificent  liveries,  filled  the  streets  of  the  city 
with  their  stir  and  noise.  These  domestic  slaves  were  sub- 
jected, without  distinction  of  sex,  to  the  most  severe  discipline, 
and  were  forced  to  submit  to  all  the  cruel  or  voluptuous 
caprices  of  their  masters,  and,  like  the  slaves  of  antiquity, 
were  exposed  to  the  most  frightful  chastisements.  Whilst 
the  registered  serf  was  attached  to  the  land  the  slave  could 
be  sold,  either  by  heads  or  by  families,  without  compunction. 
Wives  were  separated  from  their  husbands  and  children  from 
their  parents. 

The  custom  of  secluding  women  is  older  than  the  Tatar  in- 
vasion. The  Russian  Slavs  were  Asiatics  even  before  they 
were  subdued  by  the  Mongols.  Byzantium  had  likewise  far 
more  influence  than  Kazan  on  Russian  manners.  Now,  in 
ancient  Athens,  and  in  the  Constantinople  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  matron  and  the  young  girl  were  alike  obliged  to  remain 
in  the  women's  apartments,  which  became  in  Moscow  the 
lerem,  or  attic  chamber.  In  Russia,  as  in  the  Rome  of  the 
Twelve  Tables,  the  woman  was  always  a  minor.  This  was 
one  consequence  of  the  patriarchal  organization  of  the  family. 
She  always  remained  under  the  guardianship  of  her  father,  her 
husband's  father,  an  uncle,  an  elder  brother,  or  a  grandfather. 
The  Russian  monks  translated  for  her  use  the  sermons  of  the 
monks  of  the  Lower  Empire,  which  enjoined  the  wife  "  to  obey 
her  husband  as  the  slave  obeys  his  master  "  ;  to  consider  herself 
only  as  the  "  property  of  the  man  "  ;  never  to  allow  herself  to 
be  called  mistress,  but  to  look  on  her  husband  as  her  lord  and 
master.  The  father  of  the  family  had  the  right  to  correct  her, 


296  HISTORY   OF   RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

like  one  of  his  children  or  slaves.  The  priest  Silvester,  in  his 
"  Domostro'i,"  only  advises  him  not  to  employ  too  thick  sticks, 
or  staves  tipped  with  iron  ;  nor  humiliate  her  unduly  by  whip- 
ping her  before  his  men,  but,  without  anger  or  violence,  to 
correct  her  moderately  in  private.  No  woman  dared  to  object 
to  this  chastisement ;  the  most  robust  would  allow  herself 
calmly  to  be  beaten  by  a  feeble  husband. 

The  Russian  proverb  says,  "  I  love  thee  like  my  soul,  and  I 
dust  thee  like  my  jacket."  Herberstein  mentions  a  Muscovite 
woman  who,  having  married  a  foreigner,  did  not  believe  her- 
self loved  because  he  never  beat  her.  At  home  the  Russian 
woman  was  hid  behind  the  curtains  of  the  terem ;  in  the  street, 
by  those  of  her  litter.  Over  her  face  fell  the  fata,  a  sort  of 
nun's  veil.  It  was  an  outrage  even  to  raise  the  eyes  to  the 
wife  of  a  noble,  and  high  treason  to  see  the  face  of  the  Tsar's 
wife.  A  stranger  might  have  thought  himself  at  Stamboul  or 
Ispahan.  It  appeared  so  highly  necessary  that  this  fragile 
being  should  remain  at  home,  that  she  was  allowed  to  dis- 
pense even  with  going  to  church.  Her  church  was  her  own 
house,  where  she  had  to  occupy  herself  with  prayers,  pious 
reading,  prostrations,  genuflexions,  and  alms,  and  was  sur- 
rounded by  beggars,  monks,  and  nuns.  The  priest  Silvester 
also  wished  her  to  superintend  her  house,  be  the  first  to  rise, 
to  watch  over  her  men  and  maid  servants,  to  distribute  their 
tasks,  and  work  with  her  own  hands,  like  Lucretia  of  old  or 
the  wise  woman  of  the  Proverbs.  In  reality  she  had  many 
other  ways  of  occupying  her  time.  The  toilet  of  the  Rus- 
sian ladies  was  very  complicated.  "  They  paint  themselves 
all  colors,"  says  Petrei ;  "  not  only  their  faces,  but  their  eyes, 
neck,  and  hands.  They  lay  on  white,  red,  blue,  and  black. 
Black  eyelashes  they  tint  white,  and  white  ones  black,  or  some 
dark  color,  but  they  put  on  the  paint  so  badly  that  it  is  visi- 
ble to  every  one.  At  the  time  of  my  visit  to  Moscow  the 
wife  of  an  illustrious  boyar,  who  was  exceedingly  beautiful, 
declined  to  paint  herself,  but  she  was  an  object  of  scorn  to  all 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   RENAISSANCE.  297 

the  other  women.  '  She  despises  our  customs,'  said  they. 
They  induced  their  husbands  to  complain  to  the  Tsar,  and 
obtained  an  imperial  order  to  make  her  paint."  Stoutness 
was  the  ideal  of  Turkish  and  Tatar  beauty,  so  the  Russians 
did  all  in  their  power  to  deform  their  slender  figures,  and,  by 
means  of  idleness  and  drugs,  managed  to  succeed.  As  to  the 
men,  they  always  wore  a  long  beard  and  long  dresses.  To 
shave  the  beard  like  the  European  nations  was,  said  Ivan 
the  Terrible,  "  a  sin  that  the  blood  of  all  the  martyrs  could 
not  cleanse.  Was  it  not  to  deface  the  image  of  man,  created 
by  God?" 

The  influence  of  Byzantine  monachism  is  also  to  be  found 
in  the  objection  to  all  innocent  amusements.  Cards,  and  even 
chess,  were  forbidden  ;  music  and  songs  glorifying  the  ancient 
heroes  of  Russia  were  condemned  as  diabolic ;  the  noble  exer- 
cises of  the  chase  and  dancing  were  not  allowed.  "  If  they 
give  themselves  up  at  table,"  says  the  *  Domostroi'/  "  to  filthy 
conversation  ;  if  they  play  the  lute  or  the  gusli ;  if  they  dance, 
or  jump,  or  clap  their  hands,  then,  as  smoke  chases  the  bees, 
the  angels  of  God  are  made  to  fly  from  that  table  by  those 
devilish  words,  and  demons  take  their  place.  Those  who 
give  themselves  up  to  diabolic  songs ;  those  who  play  the 
lute,  the  tambourine,  or  the  trumpet ;  those  who  amuse  them- 
selves with  bears,  dogs,  and  falcons,  —  with  dice,  chess,  or 
backgammon,  will  together  go  to  hell,  and  together  will  be 
damned." 

Owing  to  the  general  ignorance,  there  was  no  intellectual 
life  in  Russia ;  owing  to  the  seclusion  of  women,  there  was 
no  society.  Compared  with  the  gallant  and  witty  society  of 
Poland,  Russia  seems  a  vast  monastery.  The  devil  lost  noth- 
ing in  the  long  run.  The  nobles,  living  in  the  midst  of  slaves 
subjected  to  their  caprices,  degraded  themselves  while  they 
degraded  their  victims.  Debauchery  and  drunkenness  were 
the  national  sins.  Rich  and  poor,  young  and  old,  women  and 
children,  often  dropped  down  dead  drunk  in  the  streets,  with- 


298  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

out  surprising  any  one.  The  priests,  in  their  visits  to  their 
sheep,  got  theologically  drunk.  "  Even  at  the  houses  of  the 
great  lords,"  says  M.  Zabielin,  "  no  feast  was  gay.  and  joyous 
unless  every  one  was  drunk.  It  was  precisely  in  drunken- 
ness that  the  gayety  consisted.  The  guests  were  never  gay 
if  they  were  not  drunk."  To  this  very  day,  "  to  be  merry  " 
signifies  to  have  been  drinking.  The  preachers,  even,  while 
attacking  the  national  vice,  touched  it  delicately.  "  My 
brothers,"  says  one  of  them,  "  what  is  worse  than  drunken- 
ness ?  You  lose  memory  and  reason,  like  a  madman,  who 
knows  not  what  he  does.  Is  this  mirth,  my  friends,  mirth 
according  to  the  law  and  glory  of  God  ?  The  drunkard  is 
senseless.  He  lies  like  a  corpse.  If  you  speak  to  him,  he 
does  not  answer.  He  foams,  he  stinks,  he  grunts  like  a  brute. 
Think  of  his  poor  soul  which  grows  foul  in  its  vile  body, 
which  is  its  prison.  Drunkenness  sends  our  guardian  angels 
away,  and  makes  the  devil  merry.  To  be  drunk,  is  to  per- 
form sacrifices  to  Satan.  The  devil  rejoices,  and  says,  '  No ; 
the  sacrifices  of  the  pagans  never  caused  me  half  so  much  joy 
and  happiness  as  the  intoxication  of  a  Christian/  Fly,  then, 
my  brothers,  the  curse  of  drunkenness.  To  drink  is  lawful, 
and  is  to  the  glory  of  God,  who  has  given  us  wine  to  make  us 
rejoice.  The  Fathers  were  far  from  forbidding  wine,  but  we 
must  never  drink  ourselves  drunk." 

Their  only  diversions  were,  in  spite  of  the  "  Domostroi," 
the  jests  of  the  buffoons,  who,  like  the  writers  of  the  French 
fabliaux,  never  spared  Churchmen  ;  the  coarse  pleasantries  of 
male  or  female  jesters,  who  were  the  inseparable  companions 
of  the  great,  and  were  to  be  found  even  in  the  monasteries ; 
hunts  with  falcons  and  hounds,  and  bear-fights.  All  these 
festivities  were  accompanied  with  music,  and  sometimes  a 
blind  singer  would  come  and  celebrate  the  heroes  of  Old 
Russia.  The  rich  never  willingly  went  to  sleep  without  be- 
ing lulled  by  tales  told  by  some  popular  story-teller.  Ivan 
the  Terrible  always  had  three,  who  succeeded  each  other  at  his 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   RENAISSANCE.  299 

bedside.  Soon,  under  Alexis  Mikhailovitch,  theatrical  repre- 
sentations in  imitation  of  Europe  were  to  begin. 

All  Western  superstitions  were  current  among  the  Russians, 
who  also  added  follies  of  their  own.  The  people  believed  in 
horoscopes,  diviners,  sorcery,  magic,  the  miraculous  virtues 
of  certain  herbs  or  certain  formulae,  the  evils  produced  by 
"  lifting  the  footmarks  "  of  an  enemy,  in  bewitched  swords, 
in  love  philters,  in  were-wolves,  ghosts  and  vampires,  which 
play  such  a  terrible  part  in  the  popular  tales  of  Russia.  Their 
terror  of  sorcerers  is  shown  by  the  horrible  deaths  they  made 
them  die.  The  most  enlightened  Tsars  shared  this  weakness, 
and  Boris  Godunof  made  all  his  servants  swear  "  never  to 
have  recourse  to  magicians,  male  or  female,  or  to  any  other 
means  of  hurting  the  Tsar,  the  Tsaritsa,  or  their  children  ; 
never  to  cast  spells  by  the  traces  of  their  feet  or  of  their 
carriages."  They  had  more  confidence  in  the  receipts  of  a 
wise  woman,  in  holy  water  in  which  the  relics  had  been 
dipped,  than  in  doctors,  whom  they  regarded  only  as  an- 
other variety  of  sorcerers.  Nothing  was  more,  difficult  and 
dangerous  than  the  early  exercise  of  this  profession.  If  the 
doctor  did  not  succeed  in  curing  his  patient,  he  was  pun- 
ished as  a  malicious  magician.  One  of  these  unfortunate 
people,  a  Jew,  was  executed  under  Ivan  the  Third  in  a  public 
place,  for  having  allowed  a  Tsarevitch  to  die.  Anton,  an- 
other, a  German  by  birth,  was  accused  of  having  put  a  Tatar 
prince  to  death,  and  delivered  up  his  relatives  to  suffer  by  the 
law  of  retaliation.  He  was  stabbed.  Towards  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  the  situation  of  doctors  was  somewhat 
ameliorated  j  but  when  a  Tsaritsa  or  a  great  lady  had  to  be 
attended,  whose  face  they  were  never  allowed  to  see,  and 
whose  pulse  they  might  touch  only  through  a  muslin  cover- 
ing, what  proper  means  had  they  of  taking  a  diagnosis  ? 

Such  was  ancient  Russia,  —  that  European  China  discov- 
ered and  described  by  the  European  travellers  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries,  by  Herberstein,  Mayerberg, 


300  HISTOEY  OP  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVL 

Cobenzel,  envoys  of  Austria ;  Chancellor,  Jenkinson,  and 
Fletcher,  envoys  of  England;  the  Venetians  Contarini  and 
Marco  Foscarini  j  the  Roman  merchant  Barberini  j  Ulfeld 
the  Dane ;  Petrel  the  Swede ;  the  Germans  Heidenstein,  Eric 
Lassota,  Olearius  ;  Possevino  the  Jesuit ;  the  French  captain 
Jacques  Margeret ;  the  English  doctor  Collins,  and  others. 
It  now  remains  to  speak  of  literature  and  the  arts. 


THE  RENAISSANCE:  LITERATURE,    POPULAR    SONGS,    AND 
CATHEDRALS.— MOSCOW  IN  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Ecclesiastical  literature  was  chiefly  composed  of  a  collection 
of  teachings  borrowed  from  the  Fathers,  of  "  Readings  for 
Every  Day  in  the  Year,"  called  "  Waves  of  Gold,"  "  Months 
of  Gold,"  and  "  Emeralds  " ;  or  of  Lives  of  the  Saints  of  the 
Greek  or  Russian  Churches.  The  most  considerable  monu- 
ment belonging  to  this  last  group  is  the  "  Tcheti-Minei,"  a 
vast  compilation  of  the  Metropolitan  Macarius,  one  of  the  con- 
fessors of  Ivan  the  Terrible.  The  chronicles  continue  to  be 
written,  among  others  the  "  Stepennaia  Kniga,"  which  con- 
tains the  genealogy  of  the  Russian  princes  from  Rurik  until 
Ivan  Vasilievitch.  Besides  the  great  legal  collection  of  the 
"  Code  "  and  of  the  "  Hundred  Articles,"  we  must  mention 
the  "  Domostroi "  of  the  Pope  Silvester,  Minister  of  Ivan  the 
Fourth.  This  is  a  collection  of  precepts  instructing  readers 
in  the  arts  of  keeping  house  and  securing  salvation.  It  enu- 
merates the  days  on  which  swans,  cranes,  capons,  egg-pasties, 
and  cheese  are  to  be  eaten.  It  gives  receipts  for  making 
hydromel,  kvas,  beer,  gruel,  and  sweetmeats.  It  gives  bills 
of  fare,  and  at  the  same  time  teaches  the  master  of  the  house 
how  he  ought  to  govern  his  wife,  his  children,  and  his  ser- 
vants ;  avoid  the  sin  of  wicked  conversation  ;  please  God, 
honor  the  Tsar,  the  princes,  and  all  persons  of  rank ;  how  he 
should  conduct  himself  well  at  table,  —  to  blow  his  nose,  and 
to  spit  without  noise,  taking  care  to  turn  away  from  the  com- 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE  KENAISSANCE.  301 

pany,  and  put  his  foot  over  the  place."  The  "  Domostroi " 
gives  the  characteristics  of  the  Russian  civilization,  as  the 
De  Re  Rustled  of  the  elder  Cato  gives  those  of  the  ancient 
Roman  civilization.  From  Cato  to  Silvester  there  is  an  evi- 
dent progress.  Whilst  the  Roman  advises  that  the  old  oxen, 
the  old  iron,  and  the  old  slaves  should  be  sold,  the  Pope  Sil- 
vester enjoins  that  "  the  old  servants,  who  are  no  longer  good 
for  anything,  be  fed  and  clothed,  in  consideration  of  their 
former  services  :  this  ministers  to  the  salvation  of  the  soul, 
and  we  must  fear  the  anger  of  God."  "  Masters,"  he  says 
again,  "  ought  to  be  benevolent  towards  their  servants,  and 
give  them  to  eat  and  drink,  and  warm  them  properly  ;  for,  if 
they  keep  their  domestics  by  force  around  them,  and  do  not 
nourish  them  sufficiently,  they  turn  them  into  bad  servants, 
who  lie,  steal,  are  dissipated,  spoil  everything,  and  get  drunk 
at  the  tavern.  These  foolish  masters  sin  against  God,  are 
despised  by  their  slaves,  and  contemned  by  their  neighbors." 
"  When  a  man  sends  his  servant  to  honest  people,  he 
should  knock  softly  at  the  great  door  ;  when  the  slave  comes 
to  ask  him  what  he  wants,  he  should  reply,  '  I  have  nothing 
to  do  with  thee,  but  with  him  to  whom  I  am  sent.'  He 
should  only  say  from  whom  he  comes,  so  that  the  other  may 
tell  his  master.  On  the  threshold  of  the  chamber  he  will 
wipe  his  feet  in  the  straw ;  before  entering  he  will  blow  his 
nose,  spit,  and  say  a  prayer.  If  no  one  says  amen  to  him,  he 
will  say  a  second  prayer ;  if  they  still  keep  silence,  a  third 
prayer,  in  a  louder  voice  than  the  preceding  ones.  If  they 
still  do  not  speak,  he  will  knock  at  the  door.  On  entering, 
he  must  bow  before  the  holy  images ;  then  he  will  explain 
his  mission  to  the  master,  and  during  this  time  he  must  take 
care  not  to  touch  his  nose,  nor  to  cough,  nor  spit ;  he  must 
conduct  himself  with  propriety,  without  looking  to  the  right 
or  the  left.  If  he  is  left  alone,  he  must  examine  nothing 
belonging  to  the  master  of  the  house,  and  touch  nothing, 
neither  to  eat  nor  drink.  If  he  is  sent  to  carry  anything,  he 


302  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

must  not  look  to  see  what  it  is  ;  and  if  it  should  be  eatable, 
neither  his  tongue  nor  his  fingers  are  to  know  it." 

At  the  head  of  the  literary  movement  of  the  time  Ivan  the 
Terrible  and  his  enemy  Kurbski  occupy  a  place  of  honor. 
They  exchanged  many  letters,  in  which  the  one  displayed  a 
great  knowledge  of  sacred  and  profane  literature,  close  reason- 
ing, and  bitter  irony  ;  the  other  an  indignant  and  tragic  elo- 
quence. Besides  these  letters,  Ivan  addressed  an  admonition 
to  the  monks  of  Saint  Cyril,  full  of  vigor  and  mocking  grav- 
ity. The  same  Kurbski  wrote,  in  eight  books,  a  passionate 
history  of  the  Tsar  who  persecuted  "  the  strong  ones  of  Israel, 
the  high-born  heroes  of  Russia " ;  in  his  exile  in  Lithuania 
he  defended  orthodoxy  against  the  encroachments  of  Jesuit- 
ism and  Protestantism,  compiled  the  "  History  of  the  Council 
of  Florence,"  and  learned  Latin  in  order  to  translate  into  Rus- 
sian the  Fathers  of  the  Church. 

Like  his  rival,  Louis  the  Eleventh  in  France,  Ivan  the  Ter- 
rible was  in  Russia  the  protector  of  printing,  which  was 
abhorred  by  the  people  as  an  impious  drt.  Mstislavets 
and  the  deacon  Feodorof  printed  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
and  a  "  Book  of  Hours  " ;  but  later  they  were  obliged  to  fly 
into  Lithuania  to  escape  from  accusations  of  heresy  and  the 
hate  of  the  people. 

There  existed  a  literature  which  could  do  without  the  art 
of  Gutenberg,  and  which  at  this  time  attained  its  most  splen- 
did development.  This  was  the  literature  which  from  the 
earliest  centuries  of  Russian  history  had  been  kept  alive  on 
the  lips  of  the  people,  in  the  memory  of  the  peasants,  and 
which,  perpetuated  by  passing  from  generation  to  generation, 
has  at  last  been  collected  in  our  own  day  by  many  Russians 
interested  in  preserving  the  songs  and  traditions  of  the 
masses.  The  people  had  their  lyric  poetry,  marriage-songs, 
funeral  dirges,  rural  dance-songs,  hymns  for  Christmas, 
Epiphany,  Easter,  and  the  Feasts  of  Saint  George  and  Saint 
John,  —  hymns  in  which  they  celebrated  the  death  of  winter, 


CHURCH    MARRIAGE    CEREMONY. 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE  RENAISSANCE.  303 

the  birth  of  spring,  the  harvest,  and  preserved  the  recollec- 
tions of  the  ancient  religions  and  ancient  Slav  gods.  There 
were  epic  songs  which  glorified  the  legendary  exploits  of  the 
early  heroes  of  Russia,  the  demigods  of  primitive  paganism  : 
Volga  Vseslavitch,  Sviatogor,  Mikula  Selianinovitch,  Polkan, 
Dunai,  and  others.  In  these  songs  Vladimir,  the  "  Beautiful 
Sun  "  of  Kief,  groups  around  him,  like  the  Charlemagne  of 
the  chansons  de  gestes  and  the  King  Arthur  of  the  Breton 
romances,  a  whole  pleiad  of  heroes.  They  immortalize  Ilia  of 
Murom,  the  hero-peasant ;  Dobruina  Nikititch,  the  hero-boyar ; 
Alesha  Popovitch,  conqueror  of  the  gigantic  dragon,  Tugarin ; 
Solovei  Budimirovitch,  navigator  of  the  falcon-ship  Potuik, 
whom  the  perfidy  of  an  enchantress  caused  to  descend  alive 
into  the  tomb ;  Diuk  Stepanovitch,  who  crossed  the  Dnieper 
at  one  leap  of  his  horse ;  Stavr  Godinovitch,  the  warrior- 
musician,  released  by  his  wife's  artifice  from  the  prisons  of 
Vladimir ;  Thoma  Ivanovitch,  whom  the  Princess  Apraxia 
calumniated  like  another  Joseph,  but  for  whom  God  worked 
a  miracle ;  Vasili,  the  hero-drunkard,  who  went  from  a  tavern 
to  save  Russia  ;  Sadko,  the  rich  merchant  of  Novgorod,  whose 
maritime  adventures  form  an  Odyssey ;  the  Princess  Apraxia, 
who  is  seated  on  the  throne  by  the  side  of  Vladimir,  her  hus- 
band ;  the  heroines  Nastasia  and  Marina,  the  Penelope  and 
Circe  of  the  Russian  spies ;  Maria  the  White  Swan,  who 
belongs  to  the  cycle  of  bird-women ;  and  Vasilisa,  who  passed 
herself  off  as  a  man,  and  beat  all  the  athletes  of  Vladimir. 
Such  were  the  heroes  of  Kief  and  Novgorod. 

Historical  heroes  belong  to  the  cycle  of  Moscow :  Dmitri, 
the  vanquisher  of  the  Tatars  ;  Mikhail  of  Tchernigof,  Alexan- 
der Nevski,  and  Ivan  the  Terrible,  around  whom  are  grouped 
the  songs  of  the  taking  of  Kazan,  the  conquest  of  Siberia,  and 
the  famous  legends  entitled  "  The  Tsar  wishes  to  kill  his  Son," 
"  The  Tsar  sends  the  Tsaritsa  to  a  Convent,"  and  "  How 
Treason  was  introduced  into  Russia."  This  epic  current 
flows  on  up  to  the  nineteenth  century ;  and  others,  born  of 


304  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

the  shock  of  events  on  the  popular  imagination,  celebrate  the 
deeds  of  Skopin  Shui'ski,  the  wars  of  Peter  the  Great,  the 
victories  of  Elisabeth  and  Catherine  the  Second ;  the  cam- 
paigns of  Suvorof,  and  even  the  invasion  of  Russia  by  the 
"  King  Napoleon." 

Narratives,  sometimes  in  prose  and  sometimes  in  poetry, 
glorify  the  heroes  of  the  Eastern  epopee :  Akir  of  Nineveh, 
Solomon  the  Wise,  Alexander  of  Macedon,  and  Ruslan  Laza- 
revitch.  Wonderful  stories  are  told  by  the  peasants  of  Helen 
the  Fair,  of  the  Tsar  of  the  Sea,  and  of  Vasilisa  the  Wise ; 
of  the  Seven  Simeons  ;  of  the  adventures  of  Ivan,  son  of  the 
King,  and  of  the  lovely  Nastasia ;  of  the  Baba-Yaga,  and  of 
the  King  of  the  Serpents.  There  were  religious  verses,  which 
were  carried  by  the  blind  cripples,  who  sang  the  praises  of 
the  Russian  saints  from  village  to  village,  —  Saint  luri  the 
Brave  and  Saint  Dmitri  of  Solun,  vanquishers  of  dragons  and 
infidels ;  Boris  and  Gleb,  sons  of  Vladimir  the  Baptist ;  Saint 
Theodosius,  founder  of  the  catacombs  of  Kief;  Daniel  the 
Pilgrim,  who  visited  Jerusalem ;  and  others  who  belong 
almost  as  much  to  the  Slav  mythology  as  to  the  Christian 
hagiography.  Lastly,  there  are  satirical  tales,  light  and  biting 
as  French  fables,  turning  into  ridicule  the  greed  of  the  popes 
and  the  selfish  calculations  of  their  wives. 

Thanks  to  the  Greeks  who  fled  from  Constantinople,  and 
their  pupils  the  Italians,  Russia  had  a  sort  of  artistic  Renais- 
sance from  the  fifteenth  to  the  seventeenth  century,  under  the 
same  influences  as  the  West.  The  revolution  was,  however, 
less  complete  in  Muscovy  than  in  the  West ;  there  was  no 
need  to  substitute  the  round  for  the  pointed  arch,  since  Rus- 
sia had  no  Gothic  churches,  and  the  Roman  Byzantine  style, 
borrowed  in  the  eleventh  century  by  Saint  Sophia  at  Novgo- 
rod and  Saint  Sophia  at  Kief  from  Saint  Sophia  at  Constanti- 
nople, was  perpetuated,  under  the  influence  of  religious  ideas 
and  unbroken  traditions,  as  a  legacy  from  Byzantium.  There 
was  no  sort  of  change  in  painting ;  and  even  at  the  present 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE   RENAISSANCE.  305 

day,  in  the  Russian  convents,  the  custom  of  the  church  causes 
the  saints  and  the  Mother  of  God  to  be  painted  as  they  might 
have  been  painted  by  Panselinos  in  the  tenth  century  in  the 
churches  of  Mount  Athos.  The  Renaissance  chiefly  manifests 
itself  by  the  number  and  magnificence  of  the  orthodox  churches 
with  which  Italian  artists  then  illuminated  Old  Russia,  and 
by  the  greater  perfection  of  their  modes  of  building.  It  was 
then  that  Moscow  became  worthy  by  its  new  monumental 
splendors  to  be  the  capital  of  a  great  empire ;  it  was  then 
that  it  became  the  Holy  City,  with  forty  times  forty  churches, 
with  innumerable  cupolas  of  gold,  of  silver,  and  of  blue, 
which  the  Russian  pilgrim,  kneeling  on  the  Hill  of  Prostra- 
tions, salutes  from  afar. 

Moscow  was  at  that  time  composed  of  the  Kreml  or 
Kremlin,  a  fortified  enclosure  in  the  form  of  a  triangle,  of 
which  the  smallest  side  rests  on  the  Moskova,  and  the  apex 
is  turned  towards  the  north ;  of  the  Kitai-gorod,  not,  as  so 
many  travellers  translate  it,  the  Chinese  City,  but  perhaps 
derived  from  Kitai-gorod  in  Podolia,  the  birthplace  of  Helena, 
mother  of  Ivan  the  Fourth,  who  founded  the  Kitai-gorod  of 
Moscow,  which  encloses  the  bazaars  and  the  palaces  of  the 
nobles,  and  is  separated  from  the  Kreml  by  a  vast  space  which 
is  called  the  Red  Place  or  Beautiful  Place;  of  the  Bielui- 
gorod,  or  White  City,  which  surrounds  this  double  centre  of 
the  Kreml  and  the  Kitai-gorod  as  the  outer  skin  of  an  almond 
encloses  the  two  cotyledons ;  of  the  Zemlianui-gorod,  or  City 
of  the  Earthen  Ramparts,  enveloping  in  its  turn  the  White 
City,  enclosing  the  suburbs,  gardens,  woods,  lakes,  and  vast 
unimproved  spaces,  then  occupied  by  the  villages  of  the 
streltsui.  Lastly,  on  the  outer  circle  of  Moscow,  like  de- 
tached forts,  stood  the  fortified  convents,  with  white  walls, 
which  more  than  once  sustained  the  assault  of  the  Poles  and 
the  Tatars.  This  huge  Asiatic  town  was  a  city  of  contrasts. 
The  buildings  were  grouped  almost  by  accident  along  the 
wide,  marshy,  tortuous  streets,  which  were  scarcely  laid  out. 

VOL.  I.  20 


306  HISTORY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

Hovels  built  of  pine,  like  those  of  the  Russian  villages,  stood 
by  the  side  of  the  palaces  of  the  nobles.  The  people  either 
chose  them  ready  made  from  the  yards,  or  ordered  them 
according  to  their  measure.  The  carpenters  built  them  in 
two  days  on  the  place  pointed  out ;  they  cost  only  a  few 
rubles. 

Moscow  is  situated  in  that  part  of  Russia  which  is  totally 
lacking  in  stone,  and  where  the  forests  were  formerly  thickest. 
In  point  of  fact,  it  was  a  city  of  wood,  which  a  spark  might 
set  on  fire.  It  had  been  burned  almost  entirely  under  Dmitri 
Donsko'i,  and  twice  under  Ivan  the  Terrible ;  it  was  to  burn 
again  during  the  Polish  invasion  of  sixteen  hundred  and 
twelve  and  the  French  invasion  of  eighteen  hundred  and 
twelve.  The  decrees  of  the  Tsars  ordered  certain  precautions 
under  the  most  severe  penalties  :  all  the  fires  had  to  be  put 
out  at  nightfall;  in  summer  it  was  absolutely  forbidden  to 
have  lights  in  the  houses,  and  cooking  had  to  be  done  in  the 
open  air.  There  were  no  means  of  extinguishing  the  fires, 
and,  when  one  broke  out,  the  Muscovites  showed  themselves 
as  passively  fatalistic  as  the  people  of  the  East. 

It  was  chiefly  the  Kreml  that  profited  by  the  embellish- 
ments undertaken  by  the  two  Ivans  and  their  successors. 
The  enclosure,  made  of  wood  before  the  city  was  burnt  by 
Tokhtamuish,  was  now  of  solid  white  stones,  cut  in  facets, 
whence  was  derived  the  poetical  name  of  "  Holy  mother 
Moscow  with  the  white  walls  "  ;  it  was  surmounted  by  high 
and  narrow  battlements  in  the  form  of  teeth.  Eighteen 
towers  protected  it,  and  five  gates  led  into  the  interior. 
These  five  gates  present  much  originality  and  variety.  That 
of  the  Savior  was  built  in  fourteen  hundred  and  ninety-one  by 
Pietro  Solario  of  Milan.  It  is  the  sacred  gate,  that  cannot 
be  entered  covered  ;  formerly  obstinate  people  were  forced  to 
kneel  down  before  it  fifty  times.  Criminals  were  allowed 
to  make  their  last  prayer  before  the  image  of  the  Savior,  and 
the  new  Emperor  always  made  his  entrance  through  it  on 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE  RENAISSANCE.  307 

his  way  to  his  coronation  at  the  Assumption.  Another  Italian 
built  at  the  same  date  the  gate  of  Saint  Nicholas  of  Mojaisk, 
avenger  of  perjury,  before  whose  image  the  suitors  made  oath. 
That  of  the  Trinity  was  built  in  the  seventeenth  century  by 
Christopher  Galloway. 

The  wall  of  the  Kreml,  like  that  of  the  old  imperial  palace 
of  Byzantium,  encloses  a  number  of  churches,  palaces,  and 
monasteries.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  churches  is  the 
Uspienski  Sobor,  or  the  Cathedral  of  the  Assumption,  in 
which  since  the  fifteenth  century  the  Tsars  have  always  made 
a  point  of  being  crowned.  It  is  their  Cathedral  of  Rheims. 
Its  architect  was  Alberto  Fioraventi,  surnamed  Aristotele,  who 
had  already  worked  for  Cosmo  de  Medici,  Francis  the  First, 
Gian  Galeazzo  of  Milan,  Matthias  Corvinus,  and  the  Pope 
Sixtus  the  Fourth,  and  whom  Tolbusin,  ambassador  of  Ivan 
the  Third,  met  at  Venice,  and  engaged  for  the  service  of  the 
Tsar.  One  can  hardly  believe  that  the  Assumption  is  of 
the  same  date  as  the  luminous  churches  of  the  Renaissance. 
The  architect,  or  those  who  inspired  him,  has  here  tried  to 
reproduce  the  mysterious  obscurity  of  the  old  temples  of 
Egypt  and  the  East.  The  cathedral  has  no  windows,  but 
only  close-barred  shot-holes  in  the  walls,  which  admit  into 
the  interior  a  doubtful  light,  like  that  which  filters  through 
the  hole  of  a  dungeon.  This  pale  glow  touches  the  massive 
pillars  covered  with  burnished  gold ;  gleams  upon  the  mag- 
nificent yet  gloomy  background,  from  which  stand  out,  severe 
and  grave,  the  faces  of  saints  and  doctors  ;  it  dwells  here  and 
there  on  the  projections  of  the  golden  altar  partition,  cov- 
ered by  miraculous  images,  sprinkled  with  diamonds  and 
jewels ;  it  hardly  lights  the  representations  of  the  "  Last 
Judgment"  and  the  "End  of  the  World,"  painted  on  the 
walls  of  the  church.  All  the  upper  part  of  the  temple  is 
enveloped  in  shadows,  like  the  crypts  of  the  Pharaohs ;  the 
pictures  which  cover  the  vault  can  hardly  be  distinguished. 
The  artist  has  evidently  made  them  for  the  eye  of  God,  not 


308  HISTORY   OF   RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

for  that  of  man ;  for  the  eye  of  man  can  contemplate  them 
only  on  the  rare  occasions,  such  as  the  Feast  of  the  Assump- 
tion or  a  coronation-day,  when  the  whole  cathedral  is  illu- 
mined to  its  farthest  corners  by  innumerable  wax-tapers.  It 
seems  that  Aristotele  built  this  church  according  to  a  for- 
mer plan  of  some  other  architect,  but  it  is  said  that,  finding 
that  the  constructions  already  begun  were  not  sufficiently 
solid,  with  a  battering-ram,  perfected  by  himself,  he  over- 
threw the  walls  ;  then  he  caused  new  foundations  to  be  laid  ; 
and,  finally,  he  taught  the  Russians  a  better  way  of  baking 
bricks.  At  the  Assumption  is  the  tomb  of  Saint  Peter,  the 
first  Metropolitan  of  Moscow,  and  people  come  here  to  wor- 
ship before  the  holy  images  of  Vladimir  and  laroslavl.  The 
Cathedral  of  Saint  Michael  the  Archangel,  built  in  fifteen 
hundred  and  five,  is  the  Saint  Denis  of  the  Tsars  of  Russia  : 
here,  in  a  coffin  of  pine,  covered  with  red  cloth,  sleep  Ivan  the 
Terrible  and  his  two  sons.  In  the  Church  of  the  Annuncia- 
tion, with  the  agate  pavement,  the  marriages  of  the  princes 
are  celebrated.  In  that  of  the  Ascension  are  the  tombs  of  the 
sovereigns.  The  Tower  of  Ivan  the  Great  was  built  in  the 
year  sixteen  hundred  by  Boris  Godunof.  It  is  three  hundred 
and  twenty-five  feet  high,  surmounted  with  a  golden  cupola, 
with  Slavonic  inscriptions  in  letters  of  gold  which  may  be 
distinguished  from  afar,  and  it  has  a  chime  of  thirty-four 
bells. 

Of  the  imperial  palace,  built  in  fourteen  hundred  and 
eighty-seven,  only  a  few  fragments  still  remain :  the  little 
"  Golden  Palace,"  where  the  Tsaritsa  received  the  members  of 
the  clergy ;  the  "  Palace  of  Facets,"  where  the  solemn  audi- 
ences of  ambassadors  were  held  ;  the  "  Red  Staircase,"  from 
the  top  of  which  the  Tsar  allowed  the  people  to  contemplate 
".the  light  of  his  eyes";  finally  the  "  Terem,"  with  the 
painted  roof,  in  which  we  still  find  the  dining-hall,  the  hall 
of  council,  and  the  hall  of  the  oratory,  —  vaulted  rooms  of 
no  great  dimensions,  where  shine  on  golden  backgrounds  the 


CHURCH    OF    VASILI    THE    BLESSED. 


1533-1584.]  MUSCOVITE  RENAISSANCE.  309 

images  of  the  saints  who  protect  the  Tsar.  The  Palace  of 
Facets  was  begun  in  fourteen  hundred  and  eighty-seven  by 
the  Italian  Mario,  and  finished  by  Pietro  Antonio.  The  other 
palaces  are  the  work  of  the  Milanese  Aleviso.  In  the  Tsarian 
apartments  rarities  imported  from  the  West  already  began  to 
find  a  place  with  the  ancient  Russian  furniture.  In  fifteen 
hundred  and  ninety-four  the  German  ambassador  presented 
the  Tsar  Feodor  with  a  gilt  clock,  on  which  were  marked 
the  planets  and  the  calendar;  and  in  fifteen  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  with  another  clock,  where  little  figures  played  on 
trumpets,  Jews'-harps,  and  tambourines  each  time  the  hour 
struck. 

The  most  curious  edifice  in  Moscow  is  perhaps  the  Church 
of  Vasili  the  Blessed,  on  the  Red  Place.  It  was  built  by 
Ivan  the  Terrible  in  fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-four,  in  memory 
of  the  taking  of  Kazan,  and  is  the  work  of  an  Italian  artist. 
The  legend  declares  that  Ivan  put  out  the  eyes  of  the  artist, 
to  prevent  his  building  a  similar  marvel  for  others.  We  must 
imagine  a  church  surmounted  by  eight  or  ten  cupolas,  like 
bulbs,  all  of  different  heights  and  forms,  "  some,"  in  the  words 
of  Gautier,  "  beaten  into  facets,  others  ribbed ;  these  carved 
into  diamond  points,  like  pineapples,  those  striped  in  spirals ; 
others,  again,  covered  with  overlapping  scales,  lozenge-shaped, 
or 'celled  like  a  honeycomb."  A  powerful  imagination  has 
defied  all  symmetry.  From  the  base  to  the  summit  the 
church  is  covered  with  colors,  which  are  glaring,  and  even 
gaudy.  This  many-colored  monster  has  the  gift  of  stupefy- 
ing the  most  hardened  traveller.  "  You  might  take  it,"  says 
Haxthausen,  "  for  an  immense  dragon,  with  shining  scales, 
crouching  and  asleep."  Conceive  the  most  brilliant  bird  of 
tropical  forests  suddenly  taking  the  shape  of  a  cathedral,  and 
you  have  the  Vasili-Blagennoi  church. 

It  was  not  only  architects  that  Russia  owed  to  Italy. 
Fioraventi  Aristotele  coined  money  for  Ivan  the  Third,  built 
him  a  bridge  of  boats  over  the  Volkhof  during  the  expedition 


310  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVI. 

to  Novgorod,  cast  the  cannons  which  thundered  against  Ka- 
zan, and  organized  his  artillery.  Paolo  Bossio  of  Genoa  cast 
for  him  the  Tsarpushka,  the  king  of  guns,  the  giant  piece  of 
the  Kreml.  Pietro  of  Milan  made  him  arquebuses.  The  art 
of  the  founder  shed  its  greatest  brilliancy  under  Boris  Godu- 
nof,  whose  effigy  adorns  the  monarch  of  bells,  Tsar-kolokol, 
subsequently  recast  under  Alexis  and  Anne  Ivanovna,  —  the 
bronze  Titan  whose  weight  of  two  hundred  and  eighty-eight 
thousand  pounds  could  be  contained  in  no  belfry,  which 
broke  every  scaffolding,  and  rests  voiceless  like  a  pyramid  of 
bronze  on  its  pedestal  of  masonry,  constructed  in  the  begin- 
ning of  this  century  by  Montferrand. 


TSAR    KULOKOL. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    SUCCESSORS    OF    IVAN   THE    TERRIBLE: 
FEODOR  IVANOVITCH  AND  BORIS  GODUNOF. 


1584  - 1605. 


FEODOR  IVANOVITCH  (1584-1598). — THE  PEASANT  ATTACHED  TO  THE 
GLEBE. — THE  PATRIARCHATE.  —  BORIS  GODUNOF  (1598-1605). — 
APPEARANCE  OF  THE  FALSE  DMITRI. 


FEODOR  IVANOVITCH.  — THE  PEASANT  ATTACHED  TO  THE 
GLEBE.  —  THE  PATRIARCHATE. 

T71EODOR,  son  of  Ivan  the  Fourth  and  of  Anastasia  Roma- 
JL  nof,  was  totally  unlike  his  father.  He  had  neither  his 
instinctive  love  of  cruelty  and  debauchery,  nor  his  lively  intel- 
ligence, nor  his  iron  will.  The  throne  of  the  Terrible  came 
to  be  occupied  by  a  saint,  a  monk.  In  the  words  of  Ustrialof, 
"  Feodor  was  distinguished  for  his  excellent  heart ;  he  was  of 
a  sweet,  philanthropic  disposition  and  of  boundless  piety ;  he 
fulfilled  with  scrupulous  fervor  all  the  obligations  of  a  perfect 
Christian,  but  he  looked  upon  the  world  as  simply  frivolous, 
he  avoided  the  onerous  labors  of  government,  and,  though  he 
had  every  virtue  expected  of  a  private  citizen,  he  was  a  feeble 
monarch,  especially  in  contrast  to  such  an  autocrat  as  Ivan  the 
Terrible,  and  in  the  face  of  the  troublous  circumstances  into 
which  Russia  was  about  to  enter.  His  father,  knowing  his 
weakness,  appointed  for  his  aid  an  upper  council  of  five  dis- 
tinguished nobles,"  —  Prince  Ivan  Mstislavski,  a  descendant 
of  Gedimin ;  Prince  Ivan  Shui'ski,  a  descendant  of  Rurik,  a 
member  of  a  family  disgraced  in  the  early  years  of  Ivan  the 


312  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

Fourth,  but  himself  celebrated  as  the  defender  of  Pskof ;  and 
Prince  Bogdan  Belski,  another  descendant  of  Rurik.  After 
these  three  heads  of  princely  families  came  two  chiefs  of 
boyar  families.  Both  became  sovereigns,  and  both  owed 
their  elevation  to  their  wives.  The  importance  of  Nikita 
Romanof  came  from  his  sister,  the  first  wife  of  Ivan  the 
Fourth ;  Boris  Godunof  owed  his  to  his  sister  Irena,  wife  of 
the  Tsar  Feodor.  Minister  of  Ivan  the  Fourth,  brother-in-law 
of  the  reigning  Tsar,  Godunof  was  devoured  by  an  insatiable 
ambition.  Sorcerers  who  had  escaped  from  the  persecutions 
of  Ivan  the  Terrible  are  said  to  have  prophesied  that  he  should 
become  Tsar,  but  that  his  reign  was  to  last  for  only  seven 
years.  From  that  time  his  policy  consisted  in  putting  aside 
all  rivals,  in  overcoming  all  the  obstacles  that  lay  between 
him  and  the  throne. 

The  Tsar  Feodor  had  a  brother,  Dmitri,  son  of  Ivan's 
seventh  wife.  The  council  of  boyars  feared  the  intrigues 
of  which  this  infant  might  be  made  the  centre,  and,  by  the 
advice  of  Godunof,  sent  him  to  his  appanage  Uglitch,  with 
his  mother  and  her  relations,  the  Nago'is.  Prince  Bogdan 
Belski,  one  of  the  five  regents,  an  intelligent  and  ambitious 
man,  irritated  the  people  to  such  a  degree  that  they  besieged 
the  Kreml,  and  demanded  his  head.  Boris  took  advantage  of 
such  a  good  opportunity,  and  despatched  this  rival  to  Nijni- 
Novgorod.  When  Feodor,  at  his  coronation,  had  placed  on 
his  head  the  crowns  of  Russia,  Kazan,  Astrakhan,  and  Siberia, 
it  was  his  maternal  uncle,  Nikita  Romanof,  who  governed  in 
his  name ;  but  at  his  death  the  power  passed  naturally  to 
Boris  Godunof,  who,  by  his  relationship  to  the  Tsar,  was  at 
the  head  of  a  new  family  clique.  There  still  remained  in  the 
council  two  rivals  to  Boris.  Mstislavski  allowed  himself  to  be 
implicated  in  a  plot,  and  was  forced  to  become  a  monk ; 
Prince  Shu'iski,  who  had  tried  to  make  himself  a  party  among 
the  merchants,  was  accused  of  treason,  arrested  with  his  whole 
family,  and  all  were  banished  to  different  distant  towns.  The 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS   OF   IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.          313 

Metropolitan  Dionysius,  who  had  taken  his  part,  was  deposed, 
and  replaced  by  Job,  a  man  completely  at  the  disposal  of 
Godunof,  who  now  was  supreme.  He  induced  his  brother- 
in-law  to  grant  him  the  title  of  Allied  Chief  Boyar,  the  vice- 
royalties  of  Kazan  and  Astrakhan,  and  immense  territories 
on  the  Dwina  and  the  Moskova.  His  revenues  were  enor- 
mous, and  he  is  said  to  have  been  able  to  put  a  hundred 
thousand  men  in  the  field.  Nothing  could  be  obtained  from 
the  sovereign  except  through  Boris ;  he  was  more  powerful 
than  ever  Adashef  had  been,  he  had  a  whole  army  of  clients. 
It  was  he  who  replied  to  the  ambassadors,  and  who  received 
the  presents  of  the  Emperor,  of  the  Queen  of  England,  and 
of  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea.  His  enemies  were  treated  as 
though  they  were  the  enemies  of  the  prince.  He  lacked 
nothing  that  is  royal  but  the  title. 

In  foreign  affairs,  the  regency  of  Godunof  strengthened  the 
prestige  of  Russia.  Batory,  King  of  Poland,  who  had  never 
ceased  to  threaten  revenge,  died  in  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty- 
six.  A  new  danger  appeared  in  this  quarter.  Sigismoncl, 
son  of  the  King  of  Sweden,  had  schemed  successfully  for  the 
suffrages  of  the  Polish  electors.  It  was  to  be  feared  that  he 
would  one  day  unite  under  the  same  sceptre  the  two  nations 
which  Russia  had  most  cause  to  dread  in  Europe.  Rodolph 
of  Austria,  the  other  candidate,  was  less  dangerous.  Austria 
and  Russia  had  the  same  interests  with  regard  to  Turks  and 
Tatars,  and  this  identity  was  one  day  to  result  in  the  almost 
perpetual  alliance  between  the  two  Powers.  Boris  put  for- 
ward Feodor  as  a  candidate  for  the  crown  of  Poland,  and  the 
idea  of  the  union  of  the  two  Slav  monarchies  under  one  prince. 
The  Poles  refused  to  obey  any  prince  who  was  not  a  Catho- 
lic ;  they  feared  that,  instead  of  a  fraternal  union,  the  Musco- 
vite would  only  "join  their  monarchy  to  that  of  Moscow, 
like  a  sleeve  to  a  coat."  The  interests  of  caste  were  added 
to  national  and  religious  prejudices ;  the  nobles,  who  had  in 
view  only  the  weakening  of  the  royal  power,  were  not  likely 


314  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

to  give  themselves  as  master  a  sovereign  as  absolute  as  the 
Tsar  of  Muscovy.  Finally,  nothing  could  be  done  without 
money  in  the  Polish  Diets ;  Boris  committed  the  mistake  of 
sparing  it.  The  negotiations  fell  to  the  ground,  and  the 
Prince  of  Sweden  was  elected. 

The  war  with  Sweden  began  again  vigorously;  Russia 
recaptured  what  had  been  taken  from  Ivan  the  Terrible,  — 
lam,  Ivangorod,  arid  Koporie.  The  Poles,  who,  since  they 
had  a  Swedish  king,  did  not  care  to  augment  the  Swedish 
power,  gave  no  assistance.  Sigismond  Vasa,  on  his  father's 
death,  in  fifteen  hundred  and  ninety-two,  it  is  true,  saw  him- 
self for  a  moment  king  of  both  countries ;  but  his  zeal  for 
Catholicism,  which  made  him  dear  to  the  Poles,  caused  him 
to  be  detested  by  the  Swedes.  The  latter  wished  for  a 
separate  government,  under  the  regency  of  Charles  Vasa,  and 
they  soon  after  offered  him  the  crown.  This  union,  so  much 
dreaded  by  the  Russians,  soon  ended  in  a  rupture.  The 
Poles  and  Swedes  had  never  before  been  such  bitter  enemies, 
and  the  hatred  of  the  two  peoples  and  the  two  religions  was 
complicated  still  further  by  that  of  the  two  kings.  The  occa- 
sion was  favorable  for  Russia  to  undertake  the  conquest  of 
Livonia.  Boris  Godunof  had  never  abandoned  this  great 
scheme  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  but  he  failed  to  take  the  proper 
means  for  realizing  it.  Instead  of  openly  allying  himself 
with  Sweden  against  Poland,  or  with  Poland  against  Sweden, 
he  negotiated  with  both,  tried  to  play  off  one  against  the 
other,  and  ended  by  alienating  both  equally.  The  former 
minister  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  the  intriguing  Grand  Boyar, 
was  too  fond  of  hidden  paths. 

To  clear  his  way  to  the  throne,  it  was  not  sufficient  for  him 
to  be  master  of  the  palace  and  the  Court ;  he  must  create 
himself  a  strong  party  in  the  nation.  Boris,  who  felt  himself 
to  be  hated  by  the  princes  and  boyars,  sought  the  support 
of  the  small  nobility  and  the  clergy.  Hence  resulted  two  of 
the  most  important  actions  of  the  reign  of  Feodor,  —  the  bind- 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS  OF  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.          315 

ing  of  the  peasant  to  the  soil,  and  the  institution  of  the  pa- 
triarchate. 

The  Russian  peasant  was  in  fact  subjected  to  the  will  of 
his  master.  But  in  law  he  remained  a  free  man,  as  he  was 
allowed  to  pass  from  the  service  of  one  proprietor  to  that  of 
another.  This  right  brought  with  it  an  abuse.  The  large 
proprietors,  who,  being  the  richest,  could  also  be  the  most 
generous,  tried  to  attract  to  their  lands  the  peasants  of  the 
smaller  landowners,  by  insuring  them  privileges  and  immuni- 
ties. We  must  remember  that  at  this  epoch  the  population 
was  very  scanty,  and  land  had  of  itself  no  value.  It  was  pre- 
cious according  to  the  number  of  laborers  who  could  be  in- 
duced to  settle  on  it.  Thus  the  lands  of  the  smaller  pro- 
prietors ran  the  risk  of  being  depopulated  for  the  benefit  of 
the  great  lords ;  if  they  lost  their  laborers,  the  value  of  the 
land  became  proportionately  depreciated.  But  the  class  of 
small  landowners  was  at  this  period  almost  the  only  military 
class  of  Russia;  the  national  cavalry  was  recruited  almost 
entirely  from  it  alone.  If  the  source  of  their  revenues  were 
cut  off,  where  would  they  get  the  money  to  equip  themselves, 
to  answer  to  the  call  of  the  Tsar,  according  to  the  text  of  the 
ordinances,  "  mounted,  armed,  and  accompanied  "  ?  Their 
interest  thus  became  confounded  with  that  of  the  empire, 
which  would  soon  become  unable  to  support  its  armies.  Bo- 
ris Godunof  found  a  way  of  saving  the  rights  of  the  state,  and 
at  the  same  time  gaining  for  himself  the  gratitude  of  a  numer- 
ous and  powerful  class.  The  comfort  of  the  peasant  did  not 
trouble  any  one  at  this  epoch.  He  was  an  instrument  of 
agriculture,  a  force,  and  nothing  more.  An  edict  of  Feodor 
forbade  the  peasants  henceforth  to  go  from  one  estate  to  an- 
other. The  free  Russian  peasant  was  now  attached  to  the 
glebe,  like  the  Western  serf.  In  the  name  of  the  interest  of 
the  state  and  that  of  the  military  nobles,  an  immemorial  right 
was  extinguished.  We  must  not  think  that  these  silent 
masses  were  insensible.  Saint  George's  day,  when,  once  a 


316  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

year,  the  ancient  laws  permitted  the  peasant  to  pass  from  one 
domain  to  another,  remained  for  centuries  a  day  of  bitter  re- 
gret. He  cursed  for  long  the  authors  of  this  decree,  and  even 
protested  when  he  had  the  opportunity ;  but  his  protestation 
took  rather  the  form  of  flight  than  of  revolt.  The  develop- 
ment of  Cossack  life  has  a  close  relation  to  the  change  in  the 
rural  regime  ;  and  the  more  men  sought  to  bind  the  peasant 
to  the  soil,  the  more  his  spirit  revolted,  and  the  more  the 
camps  of  the  Don  and  the  Dniester  were  filled.  The  Russian 
peasant  never  passively  allowed  the  prescription  of  this  new 
form  of  slavery  to  be  established ;  in  one  way  or  another  he 
has  constantly  resisted  it.  Boris  Godunof  afterwards  partially 
repealed  this  ukas ;  while  they  were  still  forbidden  to  pass 
from  the  small  to  the  great  proprietor,  they  were  allowed  to 
change  the  service  of  one  small  landowner  for  that  of  another. 
The  feeling  of  the  time  was  not  in  favor  of  liberty ;  the  more 
Russia  tended  to  become  a  modern  state,  the  more  its  expenses 
increased,  and  the  more  the  government  was  conscious  of  the 
need  of  assuring  the  revenues  by  fixing  to  the  soil  the  popu- 
lation which  contributed  money  and  performed  statute  labor. 
It  was  the  crushed  peasant  who  bore  the  weight  of  the  reform, 
awaiting  the  day,  still  very  distant,  when  he  also  would  profit 
by  the  progress  accomplished. 

The  other  innovation  made  in  the  name  of  Feodor  was  the 
establishment  of  the  patriarchate.  The  Russian  ecclesiastics 
complained,  with  reason,  of  having  to  obey  patriarchs  who  were 
themselves  only  slaves  of  the  infidels.  Ancient  Rome  was 
polluted  by  the  Pope  ;  Constantinople,  the  second  Rome,  was 
profaned  by  the  Turk :  had  not  Moscow,  the  third  Rome,  a 
right  at  least  to  independence  ?  Boris  encouraged  these  mur- 
murs :  it  was  his  interest  that  at  the  death  of  the  Tsar  there 
should  be  a  great  ecclesiastical  authority  standing  alone,  and 
that  this  great  authority  should  owe  all  to  him.  He  profited 
by  the  arrival  at  Moscow  of  Jeremiah,  Patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople, to  induce  him  to  found  the  Russian  patriarchate  and 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS   OF  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.          317 

consecrate  Archbishop  Job,  who  was  a  tool  of  Boris.     The 
latter  had  now  a  powerful  friend. 

Boris  had  need  to  create  for  himself  a  strong  party.  Many 
eyes  began  to  turn  towards  Ivan's  second  son,  Dmitri.  His 
mother's  kindred,  the  Nagoi's,  from  their  exile  at  Uglitch, 
watched  carefully  all  the  variations  in  the  health  of  the  Tsar, 
and  every  movement  of  Boris.  Feodor's  death  would  give  the 
throne  to  Dmitri,  and  power  to  his  relatives,  —  power  to  avenge 
themselves  for  all  that  they  had  suffered.  It  would  deliver 
Boris  up  to  the  reprisals  of  his  enemies.  He  knew  this  only 
too  well.  In  fifteen  hundred  and  ninety-one  it  was  suddenly 
announced  that  the  young  Dmitri  had  been  slain.  The  story 
was  that  he  was  playing  in  the  courtyard  of  his  palace  at 
Uglitch  in  open  daylight  with  several  of  his  young  compan- 
ions, when  he  was  suddenly  murdered  by  a  son  of  Betiagovski 
who  was  superintendent  of  the  palace,  and  in  the  pay  of 
Boris.  The  sacristan  of  the  cathedral,  seeing  the  deed,  gave 
the  alarm ;  attendants  appeared,  and  immediately  put  to  death 
Betiagovski,  his  cousin  and  accomplice  Katchalof,  and  oth- 
ers suspected.  Public  suspicion  pointed  to  Boris  as  the  real 
author  of  the  deed.  To  stifle  rumor  he  ordered  an  inquest, 
and  his  emissaries  had  the  audacity  to  declare  that  the  young 
prince  cut  his  own  throat  in  a  fit  of  madness,  and  that  the 
Nagoi's  and  the  people  of  Uglitch  had  put  to  death  innocent 
men  as  murderers.  The  result  of  the  inquiry  was  that  the 
dowager  Tsaritsa  was  obliged  to  take  the  veil  as  a  punishment 
for  her  carelessness,  the  Nagoi's  were  sent  to  different  prisons, 
and  the  inhabitants  of  Uglitch  were  cruelly  transported  to  the 
deserts  of  Siberia.  Seven  years  after,  the  pious  Feodor  died, 
and  in  the  person  of  this  spiritless  and  virtuous  sovereign 
the  race  of  bloody  and  violent  men  of  prey  who  had  created 
Russia  was  extinguished.  The  dynasty  of  Andrei  Bogo- 
liubski  had  accomplished  its  mission  ;  it  had  founded  the 
Russian  unity.  The  task  of  obtaining  the  entrance  of  this 
semi-Asiatic  state  into  the  society  of  civilized  Europe  was 
reserved  for  another  dynasty. 


318  HISTOEY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

BORIS  GODUNOF.  —  APPEARANCE  OF  THE  FALSE  DMITRI, 

Boris  Godunof  reached  the  aim  of  his  desires,  —  but  at 
what  a  price !  The  murder  of  Dmitri,  the  last  descendant 
of  Saint  Vladimir,  of  Monomakh,  of  luri  and  the  Ivans,  was 
no  ordinary  crime.  Russia  had  seen  many  horrors,  but  never 
one  like  this.  The  Tsar  might  have  put  the  Russian  princes 
to  death,  but  they  were  his  enemies,  they  were  often  guilty, 
and  then  he  was  the  Tsar.  Now  a  simple  boyar  sacrificed  to 
his  own  ambition  the  son  of  his  benefactor,  the  heir  of  his 
master,  the  last  descendant  of  the  founders  of  Russia.  It 
was  one  of  those  crimes  which  make  a  deep  and  lasting  im- 
pression on  the  people.  Boris  vainly  believed  that  he  had 
buried  all  in  the  earth  with  the  corpse  of  the  Tsarevitch. 

After  the  death  of  Feodor  his  widow  Irena  entered  the 
Dievitchi  monastery,  and  took  the  veil  there,  mourning  her 
sterility,  and  lamenting  that  "  by  her  the  sovereign  race  had 
perished."  The  nobles  and  the  people  took  the  oaths  to  her, 
so  that  there  should  be  no  interregnum.  A  woman  had  the 
crown  at  her  disposal,  and  that  woman  was  the  sister  of  Godu- 
nof. As  she  refused  to  govern,  the  council  had  to  take  charge 
of  affairs  under  the  presidency  of  the  Patriarch  Job,  who  owed 
everything  to  Godunof.  It  was  impossible  that  the  throne 
should  escape  Boris;  yet  it  seemed  strange  that  a  simple 
boyar,  a  creature  of  Ivan  the  Fourth,  should  take  precedence 
of  all  the  princes  descended  in  direct  line  from  Rurik.  How- 
ever, the  Patriarch  and  his  clergy,  the  boyars  and  citizens  of 
Moscow,  appeared  before  the  Dievitchi  monastery,  in  which 
Godunof  had  shut  himself  up  with  his  sister.  Job  entreated 
him  to  accept  the  crown.  Godunof  refused,  apparently  from 
an  excess  of  modesty ;  in  reality,  because  he  wished  to  receive 
it  from  the  hands  of  the  nation.  The  States-General  were 
then  assembled ;  the  lesser  nobility  and  the  clergy,  that  is, 
the  friends  of  Boris,  formed  the  majority.  After  the  despot- 
ism of  Ivan,  it  was  a  strange  sight  to  see  this  assembly  dis- 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS   OF   IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.          319 

pose  of  the  crown.  The  Russia  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  had,  like 
Poland,  its  elective  diet,  but  the  lesson  of  obedience  had  been 
so  well  learned,  that  there  was  no  fear  of  anarchy.  They  were 
told  that  Ivan  the  Fourth  on  his  death-bed  had  confided  to 
Boris  his  family  and  his  empire,  and  that  Feodor  had  put 
round  his  neck  a  chain  of  gold.  Men  made  the  most  of  the 
experience  of  government  that  he  had  acquired  under  two 
reigns ;  they  boasted  of  his  skilful  dealings  with  Sweden,  Po- 
land, and  the  Crimea.  The  national  voice  decreed  to  him  the 
crown,  and  the  states  sent  him  a  deputation.  He  still  feigned 
to  hold  back,  and  cast  out  "  the  tempters  "  ;  but  his  sister 
"  blessed  him  for  the  throne,"  and  thus  consecrated  the  wish 
of  the  people.  Boris  reigned. 

His  reign  was  not  without  glory.  He  took  up  the  designs 
of  his  master,  Ivan  the  Fourth,  on  Livonia ;  and  as  the  Terri- 
ble had  his  puppet  king  Magnus,  Boris  sought  first  a  Swedish 
prince  Gustaf,  and  then  a  Danish  prince  John,  to  play  the 
part  of  King  of  Livonia..  John  was  about  to  marry  Xenia, 
daughter  of  the  new  Tsar,  when  he  died  suddenly.  Denmark 
declared  that  he  had  been  poisoned ;  and  in  the  Russia  of 
that  date  everything  is  conceivable.  The  Khan  of  the  Crimea, 
who  had  vainly  tried  to  make  two  incursions,  and  who  had 
then  a  quarrel  with  the  Turks,  sought  the  friendship  of  Boris. 
Affairs  in  the  Caucasus  were  in  a  less  prosperous  condition. 
Alexander,  Prince  of  Kakhetia,  who  had  acknowledged  him- 
self vassal  of  Boris,  was  assassinated,  and  succeeded  by  his 
son,  who  was  on  the  side  of  Shah  Abbas,  King  of  Persia, 
and  Islamism.  In  Daghestan  a  body  of  Russians  sent  to 
occupy  the  country  were  exterminated  by  the  Turks.  Russia 
had  not  yet  approached  near  enough  to  the  Black  Sea  to  be 
able  with  assurance  to  take  the  field  in  those  distant  regions. 
In  Siberia,  Kutchum,  the  dethroned  khan,  was  vanquished 
and  driven  far  beyond  the  Irtuish ;  this  battle  decided  the 
fate  of  Asian  Siberia,  though  the  two  Russian  voiievodui 
had  only  four  hundred  men,  and  Kutchum  only  five  him- 


320  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

dred.  The  Russians  took  possession  of  many  towns  and  built 
several  important  fortresses,  and  thus  secured  control  of  the 
country. 

The  firm  rule  of  Boris  gave  confidence  to  the  foreign  gov- 
ernments which  sought  his  friendship.  The  Powers  of  the 
West,  especially  Austria  and  England,  continued  to  negotiate 
with  him,  and  Sweden  and  Poland  were  in  no  condition  to 
cause  him  injury.  In  sixteen  hundred  he  sent  Gregory 
Mikulin  to  Queen  Elizabeth.  "  He  had  learned,"  says  the 
Tsar's  letter,  "  that  the  Queen  had  furnished  help  to  the  Turks 
against  the  Kaiser  of  Germany.  We  are  astonished  at  it,  as 
to  act  thus  is  not  proper  for  Christian  sovereigns ;  and  you, 
our  well-beloved  sister,  —  you  ought  not  for  the  future  to  enter 
into  relationships  of  friendship  with  Mussulman  princes,  nor  to 
help  them  in  any  way,  whether  by  men  or  silver ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  should  desire  and  insist  that  all  the  great  Christian 
potentates  should  have  a  good  understanding,  union,  and 
strong  friendship,  and  make  one  against  the  Mussulmans,  till 
the  hand  of  the  Christians  rise,  and  that  of  the  Mussulmans  is 
abased." 

Mikulin  was  received  in  London  with  great  honors.  In 
the  audience  given  him  by  the  Queen  "  she  arose  from  her 
throne  and  advanced  some  distance  "  to  listen  to  his  compli- 
ments ;  after  which  she  bowed  her  head  and  asked  for  news 
of  the  health  of  the  Tsar,  the  Tsaritsa,  Maria  Gregorievna, 
and  of  the  Tsarevitch  Feoclor  Borisovitch.  She  received  his 
credentials  "  with  great  joy,"  and,  being  seated,  listened  to 
Mikulin's  message.  She  replied  to  the  passage  touching  on 
her  relations  with  Turkey  by  protestations  of  friendship  and 
union  with  all  the  Christian  princes,  gave  her  hand  to  be  kissed 
by  the  envoy  and  also  by  the  secretary  of  the  embassy,  Ivan 
Zinovief,  and  sent  them  to  talk  over  their  affairs  with  Lord 
Robert  Cecil.  The  commercial  interests  of  the  two  peoples 
were  guaranteed  anew.  During  his  visit  to  London,  Mikulin 
was  present  at  the  revolt  of  sixteen  hundred  and  one,  led  by 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS   OF   IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.          321 

Essex,  and  saw  the  citizens  rush  through  the  streets  armed 
with  cuirasses  and  arquebuses  to  defend  the  Queen.  He  left 
London  in  May,  sixteen  hundred  and  one,  and  in  his  account 
he  gives  many  curious  details  of  the  English  Court  at  this 
epoch  which  was  the  most  brilliant  of  Elizabeth's  reign. 

Boris  surrounded  himself  with  soldiers,  learned  men,  and 
artists.  With  their  help  he  raised  monuments,  built  the 
tower  of  Ivan  the  Great  in  the  Kreml,  and  had  the  Monarch 
of  Bells  cast.  It  was  he  who  first  sent  young  Russians  to 
Liibeck,  England,  France,  and  Austria,  to  study  European 
arts.  The  fashions  of  the  West  penetrated  to  Moscow,  and 
some  of  the  nobles  began  to  shave  their  beards. 

This  prosperity  was  all  unreal.  His  services,  even  his 
charities,  turned  against  him.  "  He  presented  to  the  poor," 
says  a  contemporary,  "  in  a  vase  of  gold,  the  blood  of  the 
innocents.  He  fed  them  with  unholy  arms."  When  a 
dreadful  famine,  accompanied  by  pestilence,  desolated  Russia 
from  sixteen  hundred  and  one  till  sixteen  hundred  and  four, 
Boris  caused  immense  quantities  of  provisions  and  large  sums 
of  money  to  be  distributed.  Multitudes  flocked  to  Moscow, 
and  the  misery  was  increased  by  the  very  concentration. 
Half  a  million  people  are  said  to  have  perished  in  the  city ; 
the  dead  lay  by  thousands  in  the  streets.  Parents  devoured 
their  own  children,  and  cannibalism  became  rampant.  The 
famine  was  attributed  to  the  crimes  of  Boris  Godunof.  The 
oligarchic  party,  ashamed  of  obeying  a  simple  boyar,  were  be- 
ginning to  grow  uneasy.  After  having  pardoned  his  ancient 
rival  Belski,  Boris  was  obliged  to  throw  him  into  prison.  He 
acted  with  severity  towards  the  Romanofs,  who  were  exiled, 
many  of  them  having  been  previously  tortured.  Feodor,  the 
eldest,  was  forced  to  become  a  monk  under  the  name  of 
Philaret,  and  his  wife  took  the  veil  under  the  name  of  Marfa. 
But  from  the  son  of  this  monk  and  this  nun  emperors  were 
destined  to  spring. 

Feeling  himself  surrounded  by  plots,  Boris  Godunof  did  not 

VOL.  I.  21 


322  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

hesitate  to  devise  any  means  of  security,  and  he  received  the 
denunciations  of  slaves  against  their  masters.  The  peasants, 
driven  to  desperation  by  the  famine,  joined  the  servants  of  the 
disgraced  nobles,  and  formed  themselves  into  bands  of  brig- 
ands who  infested  the  southern  provinces,  and  even  insulted 
the  environs  of  Moscow.  It  was  necessary  to  send  a  regular 
army  against  them.  To  these  calamities  was  added  the  uni- 
versal presentiment  of  others  yet  greater.  The  term  of  seven 
years  assigned  by  the  astrologers  to  the  reign  of  Boris  was 
approaching.  The  crime  of  Uglitch,  still  imexpiated,  had 
left  a  strange  uneasiness  throughout  Russia.  Suddenly  there 
arose  a  rumor  that  the  murdered  Dmitri  was  living,  and  with 
arms  in  his  hands  was  making  ready  to  assert  his  rights  to 
the  empire. 

At  the  Monastery  of  the  Miracle  notice  had  been  attracted 
to  a  young  monk,  Gregory  Otrepief,  who,  after  having  for  a 
long  while  wandered  from  convent  to  convent  at  his  own 
pleasure,  finally  reached  this  monastery;  and  the  Patriarch 
Job,  discerning  his  intelligence,  made  him  his  secretary.  In 
discharge  of  these  functions  he  became  acquainted  with  more 
than  one  state  secret.  "  Do  you  know,"  he  used  to  say  to 
the  other  monks,  "  that  I  shall  be  one  day  Tsar  of  Moscow  ?  " 
They  spat  in  his  face,  and  the  Tsar  Boris  Godunof  ordered 
him  to  be  confined  in  the  Monastery  of  the  White  Lake.  He 
succeeded  in  escaping ;  again  became  a  wandering  monk,  and, 
being  well  received  at  Novgorod-Severski,  had  the  temerity  to 
write  to  the  inhabitants :  "  I  am  the  Tsarevitch  Dmitri,  and 
I  will  not  forget  your  kindness."  Then  he  renounced  his 
orders,  enrolled  himself  among  the  Zaporoshtsui,  and  became 
a  bold  rider  and  a  brave  Cossack.  He  passed  into  the  ser- 
vice of  Adam  Vishnevetski,  a  Polish  noble ;  he  fell  ill,  or 
feigned  to  do  so,  summoned  a  priest,  and  revealed  to  him, 
under  the  seal  of  the  confessional,  that  he  was  the  Tsarevitch 
Dmitri,  who  had  escaped  from  the  hands  of  the  assassins  at 
Uglitch,  by  another  child  being  substituted  and  buried  in  his 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS  OF  IVAN  THE  TERRIBLE.          323 

place.  He  showed  a  cross,  set  with  jewels,  that  hung  round 
his  neck,  given  him  by  Mstislavski,  godfather  of  the  Tsare- 
vitch.  The  Jesuit  did  not  dare  to  keep  such  a  secret  to  him- 
self. Otrepief  was  recognized  by  his  master,  Vishnevetski, 
as  the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible.  Mnishek,  vo'ievod  of  Sando- 
mir,  promised  him  his  support  and  the  hand  of  his  daughter, 
Marina,  who  consented  with  joy  to  be  Tsaritsa  of  Moscow. 
The  strange  news  spread  throughout  the  kingdom.  The 
Pope's  nuncio  took  the  Tsarevitch  under  his  protection,  and 
presented  him  to  King  Sigismond.  Were  they  really  de- 
ceived ?  It  is  more  probable  that  they  saw  in  him  a  formi- 
dable instrument  of  agitation,  which  the  king  flattered  himself 
he  would  be  able  to  use  against  Russia,  and  the  Jesuits 
against  orthodoxy.  Sigismond  feared  to  take  on  himself  the 
rupture  of  the  truce  he  had  concluded  with  Boris,  and  expose 
himself  to  Russian  vengeance.  He  treated  Otrepief  as  Tsare*- 
vitch,  but  only  in  private ;  he  refused  to  put  the  royal  troops 
at  his  disposal,  but  he  authorized  the  nobles,  who  were  touched 
by  the  prince's  misfortune,  to  help  him  if  they  wished.  The 
nobles  did  not  need  the  royal  authority  ;  many  of  them,  with 
the  levity  and  love  of  adventure  which  characterized  the  Po- 
lish nobility,  took  up  arms  in  favor  of  the  Tsarevitch.  Then 
Boris  recognized,  says  Leveque,  that  the  weakest  enemy  can 
make  a  usurper  tremble. 

No  revolution,  even  if  it  were  the  wisest  and  most  necessary, 
could  be  accomplished  without  putting  in  motion  the  dregs  of 
society,  without  the  clashing  of  a  mass  of  interests,  and  the 
gathering  together  of  a  multitude  who  are  outcasts  from  all 
classes.  The  transformation  which  was  then  taking  place  in 
Russia  for  the  formation  of  the  modern  united  state,  had 
engendered  all  these  elements  of  disorder.  The  peasants, 
whom  the  laws  of  Boris  had  but  recently  attached  to  the 
glebe,  were  everywhere  sullenly  hostile.  Many  of  them  had 
escaped,  and  joined  the  bands  of  free  Cossacks.  The  lesser 
nobility,  for  whose  profit  this  law  had  been  made,  were 


324  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

scarcely  able  to  live  on  their  lands ;  the  Tsar's  service  had 
become  ruinous,  and  many  were  inclined  to  supplement  the  in- 
sufficiency of  their  revenues  by  brigandage.  The  boyars  and 
the  great  nobility  were  profoundly  demoralized ;  they  were 
ready  for  any  treason.  The  warlike  republics  of  the  Cossacks  of 
the  Don  and  the  Dnieper,  the  bands  of  serfs,  of  fugitive  peas- 
ants, who  infested  the  Russian  territory,  were  waiting  only  for 
an  opportunity  to  lay  waste  the  country.  The  ignorance  of 
the  masses  was  profound,  and  their  minds  greedy  of  wonders 
and  change  ;  no  other  nation  ever  allowed  itself  to  be  deceived 
so  often  by  the  same  fable,  the  sudden  apparition  of  a  prince 
who  had  been  supposed  to  be  dead.  Adventures  like  those 
of  Otrepief  the  false  Dmitri,  and  of  Pugatchef  the  false  Peter 
the  Third,  could  not  have  taken  place  in  any  other  European 
country.  These  two  adventurers  rendered  themselves  particu- 
larly famous,  but  the  secret  archives  show  us  that  in  the  Rus- 
sia of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  there  were 
hundreds  of  impostors  who  falsely  took  the  name  of  Dmitri, 
of  Alexis,  of  Peter  the  Second,  and  of  Peter  the  Third.  We 
might  almost  think  that  the  Russians,  the  most  Asiatic  of  all 
European  nations,  had  not  renounced  the  Oriental  dogma  of 
re-incarnations  and  avatars.  The  government  was  powerless, 
in  a  country  so  utterly  without  communication,  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  most  absurd  rumors.  Besides,  the  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious masses  were  hostile  to.  it,  and  delighted  to  allow 
themselves  to  be  deceived.  So  many  elements  of  rebellion 
required  only  to  be  set  in  motion  by  the  hand  of  a  skilful 
agitator.  The  entrance  of  the  impostor  into  Russia  was  the 
signal  of  dissolution. 

As  long  as  the  power  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  clever  and 
energetic  Godunof,  he  was  able  to  maintain  order,  to  restrain 
the  authors  of  revolt,  and  to  discourage  the  false  Dmitri. 
The  Patriarch  Job  and  Vasili  Shuiski,  who  had  conducted  the 
inquest  at  Uglitch,  made  proclamations  to  the  people  affirm- 
ing that  Dmitri  was  really  dead,  and  that  the  impostor  was 


1584-1605.]     SUCCESSORS   OF   IVAN  THE   TERRIBLE.          325 

none  other  than  Otrepief.  Similar  declarations  were  sent  to 
the  King  and  the  Diet  of  Poland.  Finally,  troops  were  put  in 
marching  order,  and  a  line  of  communications  established  with 
the  western  frontier.  But  already  the  towns  of  Severia  were 
revolting  at  the  approach  of  the  Tsarevitch,  and  the  boyars 
publicly  announced  that  it  was  hard  to  bear  arms  against  their 
lawful  sovereign.  At  Moscow  the  health  of  the  Tsar  Dmitri 
was  drunk  at  feasts.  In  October,  sixteen  hundred  and  four, 
the  impostor  crossed  the  frontier  with  an  army  of  Poles, 
Russians  banished  in  the  preceding  reign,  and  German  mer- 
cenaries. Severia  at  once  rose,  and  Novgorod-Severski  opened 
her  gates  to  him.  Prince  Mstislavski  tried  to  check  his  prog- 
ress by  a  battle,  but  the  soldiers  were  struck  by  the  idea  that 
the  man  whom  they  fought  was  the  real  Dmitri.  "  They  had 
no  hands  to  fight,  but  only  feet  to  fly."  Vasili  Shu'iski, 
Mstislavski's  successor,  did  his  best  to  rally  their  courage,  and 
this  time,  in  spite  of  his  intrepidity,  the  impostor  was  defeated 
at  Dobruinitchi.  Boris  believed  the  war  finished ;  but  in 
reality  it  had  only  begun.  After  Severia,  the  Ukraina  re- 
belled, and  four  thousand  Cossacks  of  the  Don  came  to 
join  the  brigand.  The  inaction  of  the  Muscovite  voievodui 
proved  that  the  spirit  of  treason  had  already  penetrated  the 
nobility. 

In  sixteen  hundred  and  five  Boris  died,  commending  his 
innocent  son  to  the  care  of  Basmanof,  the  boyars,  the  Patri- 
arch, and  the  people  of  Moscow.  But  hardly  had  Basmanof 
taken  the  command  of  the  army  of  Severia,  than  he  under- 
stood that  neither  the  soldiers  nor  the  leaders  were  going  to 
fight  for  a  Godunof.  Rather  than  be  the  victim  of  treason, 
he  preferred  being  the  author  of  it.  The  man  in  whom  the 
dying  Boris  had  placed  all  his  confidence  united  with  Galitsuin 
and  Soltuikof,  secret  adherents  of  the  impostor.  He  solemnly 
announced  to  the  troops  that  Dmitri  was  in  truth  the  son  of 
Ivan  the  Terrible  and  the  lawful  master  of  Russia,  and  he 
was  the  first  to  throw  himself  at  the  feet  of  the  Pretender,  who 


326  HISTOEY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVII. 

was  at  once  proclaimed  by  the  troops.  Moscow  followed  the 
example  of  the  army,  and  the  result  was  that  the  whole  people 
took  oath  to  Dmitri,  who  marched  from  Putiol  to  the  capital, 
received  everywhere  with  acclamations  as  the  heir  of  Ivan  the 
Terrible.  Godunof's  wife  and  his  son  Feodor  were  cruelly 
massacred.  Such  was  the  end  of  the  dynasty  which  Boris 
had  thought  to  found  in  the  blood  of  a  Tsarevitch ! 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 
THE  TIME  OF  THE  TROUBLES. 

1605-  1613. 

MURDER  OP  THE  FALSE  DMITRI.  —  VASILI  SHUISKI.  —  THE  BRIGAND 
OF  TUSHINO.  —  VLADISLAS  OF  POLAND.  — THE  POLES  AT  THE  KREML. 
—  NATIONAL  EISING.  —  MININ  AND  POJARSKI.  —  ELECTION  OF 
MIKHAIL  ROMANOF. 


MURDER    OF    THE    FALSE    DMITRI.  —  VASILI    SHUISKI.  — 
THE  BRIGAND  OF  TUSHINO. 


event  that  had  taken  place  in  Russia  is  one  of  the 
I  most  extraordinary  in  the  annals  of  the  world.  A  run- 
away monk  entered  Moscow  in  triumph  as  the  Tsar,  among 
the  joyful  tears  of  the  people,  who  thought  they  beheld  a  de- 
scendant of  their  long  line  of  princes.  Only  one  man  had  the 
courage  to  affirm  that  he  had  seen  Dmitri  assassinated,  and 
that  the  new  Tsar  was  an  impostor.  This  was  Vasili  Shu'iski, 
one  of  those  who  had  directed  the  inquest  at  Uglitch,  and 
who  had  defeated  the  Pretender  at  the  battle  of  Dobruinitchi. 
Denounced  by  Basmanof,  he  was  condemned  to  death  by  an 
assembly  of  the  three  orders,  and  his  head  was  actually  on 
the  block,  when  he  received  a  pardon  from  the  Tsar.  Men 
did  not  recognize  the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  in  this  act  of 
clemency,  and  Otrepief  had  afterwards  cause  to  repent  of  it. 
Job,  the  tool  of  Godunof,  was  replaced  in  the  patriarchate 
by  a  favorite  of  the  new  prince,  the  Greek  Ignatius.  The 
Tsar  had.  an  interview  with  his  pretended  mother,  Maria 
Nagoi,  widow  of  Ivan  the  Fourth.  Whether  because  she 


328  HISTOEY   OE   RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

wished  to  avenge  her  injuries,  or  merely  to  recover  her 
honors,  Maria  recognized  Otrepief  as  her  son,  and  publicly 
embraced  him.  He  loaded  the  Nagoi's,  whom  he  regarded  as 
his  maternal  relations,  with  favors ;  the  Romanofs  were  like- 
wise recalled  from  exile,  and  Philaret  made  Metropolitan  of 
Rostof. 

The  Tsar  presided  regularly  at  the  council,  where  the  boy- 
ars  admired  the  clearness  of  his  apprehension  and  the  variety 
of  his  knowledge.  As  a  monk  he  was  a  man  of  letters,  and 
as  a  pupil  of  the  Zaporoshtsui  an  accomplished  horseman, 
bold  and  skilful  in  all  bodily  exercises.  He  was  fond  of 
foreigners,  and  even  spoke  of  sending  the  Russian  nobles 
to  be  educated  in  the  West.  This  taste  for  strangers  went 
hand  in  hand  with  openly  expressed  contempt  for  the  national 
ignorance  and  grossness.  He  offended  the  boyars  by  his  sar- 
castic raillery,  and  alienated  the  people  and  the  clergy  by  his 
disdain  of  Russian  customs  and  religious  rites.  He  neglected 
to  salute  the  images  of  the  saints;  he  ate  veal,  which  was 
considered  an  unclean  meat ;  he  dined  without  having  the 
table  blessed  and  sprinkled  with  holy  water ;  he  often  was 
impious  enough  to  rise  without  washing  his  hands ;  he  never 
slept  after  dinner,  but  took  that  time  to  walk  the  streets  almost 
unattended ;  he  borrowed  money  from  the  convents  in  order 
to  pay  his  soldiers,  turned  the  monks  into  ridicule,  fought 
with  bears ;  he  rode  untamed  horses  at  a  furious  speed,  while 
it  had  always  been  the  custom  for  the  Tsar  to  ride  slowly  and 
with  dignity ;  he  visited  jewellers  and  foreign  artisans  famil- 
iarly ;  and  he  took  no  heed  of  the  severe  Court  etiquette.  He 
pointed  cannons  with  his  own  hand,  organized  sham  fights 
between  the  national  troops  and  the  foreign  mercenaries,  was 
pleased  to  see  the  Russians  beaten  by  the  Germans,  and  sur- 
rounded himself  by  a  European  guard,  with  Margeret,  Knut- 
sen,  and  Van  Dennen  at  its  head.  On  his  entry  into  Moscow 
a  struggle  took  place  between  the  clergy  and  the  papal  legate, 
and  two  bishops  were  exiled.  He  got  no  thanks  for  resist- 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OF   THE   TKOUBLES.  329 

ing  the  Pope  and  the  King  of  Poland,  for  declining  to  assist 
the  former  in  the  reconciliation  of  the  two  churches  and 
refusing  to  cede  to  the  latter  an  inch  of  Russian  land.  The 
arrival  of  his  wife,  the  Catholic  Marina  Mnishek,  with  a 
suite  of  Polish  gentlemen,  who  assumed  an  insolent  demeanor 
towards  the  Russians,  completed  the  irritation  of  the  Musco- 
vites. Less  than  thirty  days  after  his  entrance  into  the 
Kreml,  men  were  ripe  for  a  revolution. 

Vasili  Shuiski,  who  had  been  so  magnanimously  pardoned 
by  Otrepief,  was  the  head  of  the  conspirators.  The  extreme 
confidence  of  the  Tsar  was  his  ruin.  He  felt  that  the  soldiery 
were  attached  to  him,  and  he  felt  secure  against  any  move- 
ment on  the  part  of  the  patient  Russian  populace.  On  the 
twenty-ninth  of  May,  sixteen  hundred  and  six,  the  boyars 
attacked  the  Kreml,  which  had  been  left  guarded  by  only  a 
small  company  of  halberdiers.  Otrepief,  after  a  short  resist- 
ance, in  which  he  killed  several  of  his  assailants  with  his  own 
hand,  was  thrown,  or  leaped,  out  of  a  window,  and  was  stabbed 
in  the  court  of  the  palace ;  Basmanof,  who  defended  him,  being 
killed  by  his  side.  They  took  the  two  corpses,  and  exposed 
them  on  the  place  of  executions,  with  Otrepief  s  feet  resting 
on  Basmanof's  breast.  They  threw  over  his  face  a  ribald 
mask,  said  to  have  been  found  in  the  renegade's  chamber  in 
the  place  usually  devoted  to  the  holy  images.  A  flute  was 
thrust  into  his  mouth,  and  a  set  of  bagpipes  was  placed 
under  his  arms  as  a  fitting  mark  for  the  Tsar  who  has  dis- 
graced his  high  position.  Otrepief' s  widow  and  the  Polish 
envoys  sent  to  assist  at  the  wedding  narrowly  escaped  with 
their  lives,  and  were  kept  prisoners  by  the  boyars.  To  satisfy 
the  popular  superstition  that  he  was  a  sort  of  vampire  who 
would  come  to  life  again,  the  corpse  of  the  heretic  was  burned, 
and  a  cannon  was  charged  with  his  ashes,  which  were  blown 
to  the  winds.  Ustrialof  thus  speaks  of  the  character  of  Otre*- 
pief :  "  He  comprehended  the  immense  greatness  of  Russia  in 
comparison  with  the  other  European  states,  and  since  he  was 


330  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

the  head  of  many  tsardoms  which  had  submitted  to  the  Rus- 
sian sceptre,  not  being  satisfied  with  the  title  of  Tsar  he  took 
the  name  of  Emperor.  He  established  the  senate;  he  de- 
signed to  give  a  better  organization  to  the  state  ;  he  formed 
a  regular  army ;  he  began  to  care  for  the  national  education 
and  the  improvement  of  manners.  He  brought  Russia  into 
close  relationship  with  Europe,  and  especially  with  France, 
whose  king,  Henry  the  Fourth,  he  seemed  to  appreciate  better 
than  did  most  of  his  contemporaries,  and  whose  friendship  he 
wished  personally  to  gain.  Finally,  comprehending  the  real 
relations  of  Russia  with  the  neighboring  towns,  he  prepared 
vigorously  for  the  campaign  against  the  Turkish  Sultan,  as 
the  enemy  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  consequently  of  the 
Russian  fatherland,  and  for  this  purpose  he  employed  his  pre- 
ponderating influence  over  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  and  the 
other  Tatar  princes.  But  while  he  understood  the  necessities 
of  the  empire,  he  did  not  comprehend  his  own  personal  situa- 
tion. He  awoke  against  himself  universal  hatred,  and  the 
annals  hint  at  unheard-of  crimes,  and  call  him  by  the  name  of 
bloodthirsty  tyrant,  renegade  from  the  faith,  and  God-detested 
man." 

It  was  now  necessary  to  elect  a  new  Tsar.  Two  candidates, 
two  chiefs  of  princely  families,  presented  themselves,  —  Vasili 
Shuiski  and  Vasili  Galitsuin.  Shuiski  had  signalized  himself 
by  his  hatred  of  the  usurper,  had  defeated  him  in  battle,  had 
been  condemned  by  him  to  death,  and  had  been  foremost  in 
the  conspiracy.  The  boyars  would  have  preferred  assembling 
the  States-General,  as  in  fifteen  hundred  and  ninety-eight,  but 
Vasili  would  not  await  their  decision.  More  impatient  and 
less  wise  than  Boris  Godunof,  he  chose  to  owe  his  crown  to 
the  Muscovites  alone,  and  not  to  the  delegates  of  the  whole 
nation.  It  was  the  original  sin  of  the  new  administration. 
Vasili  had  on  his  side  neither  hereditary  right,  like  the  an- 
cient Tsars,  although  he  falsely  claimed  to  be  a  descendant  of 
Alexander  Nevski,  nor  the  vote  of  the  three  orders,  like  Boris. 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OF   THE   TROUBLES.  331 

His  right  to  the  throne  thus  remained  open  to  doubt  in 
times  of  the  greatest  disturbance.  The  Patriarch  Ignatius, 
the  nominee  of  the  impostor,  was  replaced  by  Hermogenes, 
a  prelate  of  undoubted  orthodoxy,  formerly  Metropolitan  of 
Kazan.  Thus,  at  each  change  in  the  government,  a  cor- 
responding change  took  place  in  the  principal  office  of  the 
Church. 

On  ascending  the  throne,  Vasili  swore  a  solemn  oath  to  ob- 
serve all  the  laws,  to  put  no  boyar  to  death  without  trial,  not 
to  confiscate  the  goods  of  criminals,  and  to  chastise  calumnia- 
tors. True  Russians  felt  profound  sorrow  when  they  saw 
the  Tsar  thus  despoil  himself  of  his  sovereign  rights,  and 
alienate  part  of  his  autocratic  power  for  the  benefit  of  the 
boyars.  He  was  entering,  indeed,  on  the  path  of  the  pacta 
conventa,  which,  at  every  new  election  in  Poland,  deprived 
the  king  of  some  of  his  attributes,  and  led  to  the  enfeebling 
of  the  crown,  and  the  triumph  of  the  aristocratic  anarchy  of 
the  nobles. 

The  provinces  were  discontented  at  not  being  consulted  in 
the  choice  of  a  sovereign.  They  heard  almost  at  the  same 
moment  the  news  that  Dmitri  had  regained  the  throne  of  his 
forefathers ;  then  that  Dmitri  was  an  impostor,  who  had 
usurped  the  throne  by  the  aid  of  the  devil ;  finally,  that  a 
new  Tsar  was  reigning  over  Russia.  They  did  not  know 
what  to  believe,  or  in  whom  to  trust;  everything  seemed 
doubtful.  The  Russian  conscience  was  greatly  troubled,  and, 
in  the  universal  demoralization,  adventurers  found  an  easy 
road  to  success. 

Vasili,  who  was  fifty  years  old,  wanted  both  energy  and 
prestige.  He  had  specially  distinguished  himself  by  his 
talents  for  intrigue,  and  even  his  partisans  reproached  him 
with  avarice.  The  elements  of  disorder  put  in  motion  by  the 
last  two  revolutions  were  not  yet  appeased.  Neither  ambi- 
tious boyars,  nor  felonious  nobles,  nor  insurgent  peasants,  nor 
brigands,  nor  the  Cossacks  and  Zaporoshtsui,  nor  the  compa- 


332  HISTOEY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

nies,  nor  the  foreign  mercenaries,  were  satisfied.  In  such  a 
situation  it  was  inevitable  that  a  new  impostor  should  take 
the  place  of  the  former,  and  again  furnish  the  worst  passions 
with  an  outlet.  Instead  of  one,  there  were  two  pretenders  :  on 
one  side  a  Cossack  of  Terek  gave  himself  out  to  be  the  Tsare- 
vitch  Peter,  a  pretended  son  of  the  chaste  Feodor;  on  the 
other,  it  was  announced  that  Dmitri  had,  for  the  second  time, 
escaped  his  murderers.  The  same  transparent  fable  was 
always  received  with  the  same  credulity,  real  or  feigned.  At 
Moscow  the  people  recalled  the  fact  that  the  face  of  the  corpse 
exposed  on  the  Red  Place  was  covered  with  a  mask.  Some 
declared  that  the  dead  man  had  a  beard,  while  Otrepief  was 
known  to  be  without  one.  Vasili  tried  in  vain  to  disabuse 
the  people ;  he  was  not  more  successful  than  Boris.  Had 
not  Boris  overwhelmed  the  Muscovites  and  the  King  of  Po- 
land with  evidence  ?  At  the  head  of  the  revolt  in  favor  of 
the  second  false  Dmitri  was  Prince  Shakhovskoi,  who  had 
been  a  favorite  with  Otrepief  and  knew  better  than  any  one 
else  the  fact  of  his  death.  As  voievod  of  Putiol  he  sent  letters 
throughout  all  southern  Russia  announcing  the  news  of  the 
safety  of  Ivan's  son.  Although  more  than  a  year  elapsed 
before  any  one  was  found  suitable  to  play  the  part  of  the 
Pretender,  yet  the  letters  had  the  desired  effect.  Severia  and 
the  turbulent  cities  of  the  South  again  rose ;  the  discontented 
masses  armed  again  for  a  new  Otrepief  against  a  new  Godu- 
nof.  In  the  South,  a  certain  Bolotnikof,  by  birth  a  serf,  be- 
longing to  Prince  Teliatevski,  called  all  the  brigands,  all  fugi- 
tive slaves  and  peasants,  to  his  standard,  and  began  a  servile 
war  in  the  name  of  Dmitri.  He  began  to  march  against 
Moscow,  defeated  two  of  the  Tsar's  voievodui  near  Krom, 
and  by  his  successes  caused  a  revolt  among  the  citizens  of 
Riazan,  where  an  army  of  nobles  was  organized,  the  princi- 
pal leader  of  which  was  Prokopi  Liapunof.  On  the  banks  of 
the  Volga  the  Tatars  and  Finnish  tribes,  under  pretext  of  sus- 
taining the  son  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  proclaimed  their  national 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OF   THE   TROUBLES.  333 

independence.  The  empire  was  menaced  with  total  dissolu- 
tion by  the  reaction  of  all  the  forces  till  then  repressed  by 
the  strong  hand  of  the  Tsars. 

The  reappearance  of  the  false  Dmitri  was  announced  through- 
out Russia.  In  reality  no  one  had  dared  to  take  up  this  role ; 
but  the  impostor  was  so  absolutely  necessary  that  he  was 
everywhere  recognized  even  before  he  existed.  Bolotnikof 
and  his  peasants,  by  a  second  victory  gained  over  the  Tsar's 
army  in  front  of  the  village  of  Troitska,  opened  the  way  to 
Moscow,  threatened  the  capital,  and  agitated  the  lower  classes. 
Under  the  very  walls  of  the  city  he  was  joined  by  Prince 
Liapunof,  and,  establishing  his  camp  in  the  village  of  Kolo- 
menskoi,  announced  the  fall  of  Shuiski.  The  Tsar  seemed 
lost,  when  he  was  saved  by  the  military  talents  of  his  nephew, 
Skopin  Shuiski.  Liapunof  and  two  other  noble  leaders  were 
disgusted  with  their  popular  allies,  and  afraid  of  them ;  they 
separated  from  Bolotnikof,  offered  to  submit  to  the  Tsar,  and 
were  received  at  Moscow  with  caresses.  Bolotnikof,  left  alone, 
fell  back  on  Tula,  and  was  so  closely  pressed  that  he  wrote 
to  Mnishek  that  all  was  lost  if  he  could  not  produce  the  false 
Dmitri.  At  last  the  man  desired  and  expected  by  all  the 
rebels  appeared.  His  real  name  is  undivulged ;  his  origin 
is  uncertain.  He  was  by  some  said  to  be  a  Jew ;  others  said 
he  was  the  son  of  a  priest,  others  still  that  he  was  a  native 
of  Sokol  in  White  Russia ;  but  he  is  mentioned  only  by  the 
title  of  the  "  second  false  Dmitri."  All  we  know  of  him  is 
that  he  was  a  clever,  intelligent  man,  tolerably  educated,  and 
very  brutal.  He  came  too  late  to  save  Tula.  Bolotnikof  was 
drowned,  and  the  false  Peter  hanged. 

Lisovski  and  Rojinski,  two  Polish  nobles  of  great  repute, 
soon  came  to  the  aid  of  the  false  Dmitri.  The  Zaporoshtsui 
and  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  under  Zarutski,  hastened  to 
take  part  in  the  expected  booty.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that 
there  were  in  their  ranks  five  or  six  impostors,  who  all 
gave  themselves  out  as  being  sons  or  grandsons  of  Ivan  the 


334  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

Terrible.  With  all  these  forces  the  impostor  marched  on 
Moscow,  defeated  the  detachments  of  the  Tsar's  army,  and 
established  himself  twelve  versts  from  the  capital,  at  the 
village  of  Tushino.  This  encampment  has  remained  cele- 
brated in  the  history  of  the  troubles ;  it  has  gained  for  this 
second  impostor  the  surname  of  the  brigand  of  Tushino,  and 
for  his  Russian  partisans  the  designation  of  Tushinists.  Thus 
in  face  of  the  Tsar  of  Moscow  —  who  owed  his  elevation  to 
the  Muscovites  alone,  and  who  hardly  seemed  the  Tsar  of 
Russia  —  stood  the  Tsar  of  Tushino.  He,  like  his  rival,  had 
his  Court,  his  army,  his  administration.  He  distributed  titles 
and  dignities ;  and,  as  evidence  of  profound  popular  degrada- 
tion, an  ambitious  crowd  was  to  be  seen  passing  from  one 
Court  to  the  other,  falling  at  the  feet  of  both  Tsars,  receiving 
double  pay,  and,  loaded  with  honors  by  Vasili,  flying  to 
Dmitri,  to  return  again  to  Vasili.  A  nickname  was  invented 
to  designate  these  refugees.  They  were  called  "  birds  of 
passage." 

While  Tushino  menaced  and  braved  Moscow,  Polish  rein- 
forcements flocked  to  the  camp  of  the  brigand,  in  spite  of  the 
promises  and  assurances  of  the  perfidious  Sigismond.  The 
celebrated  voievod,  John  Sapieha,  came  to  join  Lisovski,  and 
they  both  tried  to  capture  the  Troitsa  monastery.  This 
famous  convent  tempted  them  by  its  riches.  With  its  ram- 
parts and  towers,  it  was  a  stronghold  for  the  partisans  of 
the  Tsar ;  its  monks  were  convinced  that  they  knew  how 
the  country  was  to  be  saved,  and  did  not  cease  to  call  all  the 
neighboring  cities  to  take  up  arms  "  for  the  faith  and  the 
Tsar."  These  warlike  monks,  who  were  like  the  "  Church 
militant  "  of  the  French  league,  —  though  they,  to  be  sure, 
were  defending  at  once  the  national  and  the  orthodox  cause,  — 
repelled  all  the  assaults  of  the  Catholic  adventurers.  After  a 
siege  of  sixteen  months  Sapieha  had  to  acknowledge  himself 
beaten.  Abraham  Palitsin,  treasurer  of  the  convent,  has  nar- 
rated the  exploits  of  his  brethren.  Suzdal,  Vladimir,  Pereia- 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OP   THE   TROUBLES.  335 

slaf,  Rostof,  and  eighteen  other  northern  towns,  not  being  able 
to  decide  which  was  the  legitimate  sovereign,  opened  their  gates 
to  the  Tushinists.  Shuiski  was  still  disliked  at  Moscow,  but 
they  knew  what  they  had  to  expect  from  the  second  false 
Dmitri.  Honest  people  who  dreaded  the  triumph  of  the 
brigand,  and  who  saw  no  possible  Tsar  but  Vasili,  forced 
themselves  to  support  him.  What  saved  the  capital  was  the 
bad  discipline  that  reigned  in  the  enemy's  camp ;  new  rebel- 
lions broke  out  against  the  rebel.  Serfs  and  muzhiki  threat- 
ened their  masters  and  ravaged  the  country,  and  the  brigand 
was  forced  to  employ  part  of  his  forces  to  suppress  this 
brigandage. 

About  this  time  the  Tsar  Shuiski  turned  for  help  to  Sweden ; 
he  ceded  the  town  of  Karela  to  Charles  the  Ninth,  contracted 
with  him  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  against  Poland, 
and  received  in  return  a  body  of  five  thousand  Swedes,  under 
the  command  of  De  la  Gardie.  With  this  reinforcement, 
Skopin  Shuiski  expelled  the  Tushinists  from  the  cities  of  the 
North,  advanced  on  Moscow,  and  obliged  the  brigand  to 
evacuate  Tushino.  The  perfidious  policy  of  the  Polish  gov- 
ernment, which  armed  the  impostors  against  the  Tsar  and 
allowed  their  voievodui  to  attack  a  friendly  country,  amply 
justified  Shuiski  in  seeking  an  ally  in  Sweden.  But  this 
foreign  intervention  gave  rise  to  another :  the  King  of  Poland, 
affecting  to  think  himself  endangered  by  the  Tsar's  alliance 
with  his  worst  enemy,  decided  to  drop  the  mask  and  openly 
interfere.  It  was  thus  that  under  the  most  fatal  auspices  the 
long  rivalry  began  between  these  two  Slav  nations,  which 
statesmanship  had  once  tried  to  unite  under  the  same  sceptre. 
Poland,  governed  by  an  instrument  of  the  Jesuits,  inflicted  on 
Russia  a  frightful  wrong.  Sigismond  disloyally  affected  zeal 
for  a  pretender  whom  he  knew  to  be  an  impostor  ;  he  violated 
treaties  and  all  the  rights  of  nations,  allowing  Russia  to  be 
attacked  by  his  armies  all  the  while  that  he  was  asserting  his 
peaceful  disposition.  His  invasion  of  Russia  filled  up  the 


336  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

measure  of  his  iniquities.     This  conduct  necessarily  left  inef- 
faceable memories  in  the  hearts  of  the  Russians. 

By  taking  up  arms  Sigismond  intended  to  assure  to  his 
son  the  throne  of  Russia,  and  restore  to  Poland  the  places  she 
had  lost  in  the  fifteenth  century.  He  besieged  Smolensk,  and 
wrote  to  announce  to  the  inhabitants  that  he  did  not  come  to 
shed  the  blood  of  the  Russians,  but,  on  the  contrary,  to  pro- 
tect them ;  and  that  he  was  prepared  to  guarantee  to  them  the 
maintenance  of  their  worship  and  liberties.  The  people  of 
Smolensk,  who  knew  the  ardor  with  which  Sigismond  per- 
secuted orthodoxy  in  his  own  dominions,  repelled  all  his 
advances,  and  the  voi'evod  Shei'n  made  ready  to  defend  the 
town  to  the  last.  Sigismond  wrote  from  his  camp  at  Smolensk 
to  the  Polish  voievodui  who  were  serving  under  the  impostor, 
with  orders  to  abandon  him.  The  Polish  Tushinists  obeyed 
with  regret,  complaining  that  the  king  would  appropriate  the 
reward  of  their  toils ;  the  Russian  Tushinists,  not  knowing 
what  to  do,  followed  their  allies,  and,  already  accustomed  to 
every  sort  of  treason,  made  their  submission  to  the  king,  and 
offered  to  recognize  his  son  Vladislas  as  Tsar  of  Russia.  At 
the  head  of  these  refugees  were  the  boyar  Mikhail  Soltuikof 
and  the  currier  Andronof. 

Shuiski  had  now  two  enemies  equally  formidable,  —  the 
King  of  Poland  and  the  false  Dmitri,  who,  himself  threatened 
by  the  ambition  of  his  royal  rival,  had  to  retreat  to  the  South. 
Vasili's  nephew,  Skopin,  who  had  saved  him  by  his  victories, 
and  won  him  popularity  by  his  frank  manners,  died  in  the 
midst  of  his  successes.  The  people  then  revived  their  old 
dislike  of  the  Tsar,  and  accused  him  of  poisoning  his  nephew. 
Another  of  the  Shulskis,  the  ambitious  Dmitri,  was  also 
involved  in  the  accusation.  Dmitri  Shuiski,  as  unpopular 
with  the  army  as  he  was  with  the  capital,  was  betrayed 
in  battle  by  the  foreign  regiments,  and  this  defeat  completed 
Vasili's  ruin.  The  people  rose  in  Moscow ;  a  great  assem- 
bly of  the  populace  and  the  boyars  was  held  in  the  plains 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OF   THE   TROUBLES.  337 

of  Serpukhof.  The  Tsar  was  "  humbly  requested  "  to  vacate 
the  throne,  because  he  caused  Christian  blood  to  be  shed,  and 
was  not  successful  in  his  government.  The  southern  frontier 
towns  also  refused  to  obey  him.  Vasili  Shuiski  yielded,  and 
abdicated ;  a  short  time  afterwards  he  was  forced  to  become 
a  monk. 

VLADISLAS  OF   POLAND.  — THE  POLES  AT  THE  KREML. 

Every  one  was  obliged  to  take  an  oath  of  obedience  to  the 
council  of  boyars,  who  naturally  seized  the  executive  power 
during  the  interval  before  the  election  of  a  new  Tsar.  There 
were  two  candidates  for  the  vacant  throne,  —  Vladislas,  son  of 
the  King  of  Poland,  and  the  false  Dmitri.  But  the  latter 
was  evidently  an  impostor.  He  ruled  the  upper  and  middle 
classes  by  terror  alone,  and  had  only  the  populace  on  his  side. 
As  they  could  not  at  once  get  rid  of  both  the  Poles  and  the 
brigand  of  Tushino,  they  chose  the  lesser  of  the  two  evils. 

A  Polish  army,  under  the  hetman  Zolkievski,  had  arrived 
at  Moja'isk :  the  impostor  occupied  Kolomenskoe.  The  boyars 
invited  Zolkievski  to  approach  Moscow,  and  they  began  to 
negotiate.  The  hetman  promised  in  the  name  of  the  young 
prince  to  maintain  orthodoxy,  the  liberties  and  privileges  of 
the  orders,  the  partition  of  legislative  power  between  the  king 
and  the  council.  No  one  was  to  be  executed  without  a  trial, 
nor  deprived  of  his  dignities  without  a  reason ;  all  Muscovites 
might  go,  if  they  wished,  to  be  educated  abroad.  The  Rus- 
sians began  to  like  the  Polish  system  of  the  pacta  conventa. 
The  inhabitants  of  Moscow  vowed  fealty  to  the  Tsar  Vladislas. 
One  point  still  remained  to  be  decided  :  the  Russians  desired 
that  Vladislas  should  embrace  orthodoxy.  Zolkievski  left  the 
decision  to  the  King  of  Poland.  He  induced  the  boyars  to 
send  ambassadors  to  Sigismond,  and  Prince  Vasili  Galitsuin 
and  the  Metropolitan  Philaret  Romanof  immediately  started 
for  the  camp  at  Smolensk.  This  terrible  crisis  seemed  at  the 
point  of  resulting  in  a  way  that  was  tolerably  advantageous  for 

VOL.  I.  22 


338  HISTORY  OP  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

Russia.  It  was  to  have  a  foreign  sovereign,  but  one  ahead v 
acquainted  with  Slav  manners,  and  his  being  a  foreigner  was 
even  a  gage  for  the  partisans  of  reforms  and  Western  civiliza- 
tion. Poland  and  Russia,  which  might  have  united  under 
Ivan  and  under  Feodor,  had  another  chance  of  doing  so  under 
a  Polish  prince.  Such  was  the  confidence  of  the  boyars,  that, 
finding  the  security  of  Moscow  troubled  by  the  neighborhood 
of  the  impostor,  they  proposed  to  Zolkievski  to  enter  into  the 
town  and  even  the  Kreml.  This  unpatriotic  resolution,  dic- 
tated to  the  nobles  by  their  mistrust  of  the  lower  classes,  was 
to  bring  fatal  consequences  on  Moscow.  Zolkievski  wished 
to  take  his  guaranties  against  the  chiefs  of  the  nation : 
Galitsuin  and  Philaret  were  already  under  Smolensk  at  the 
discretion  of  the  king  ;  he  sent  for  the  fallen  Tsar  also  and  his 
two  brothers  as  hostages. 

Sigismond  meditated  a  new  treachery  against  Russia.  His 
object  was  to  conquer  Muscovy,  not  for  his  son,  but  for  him- 
self. He  stipulated  with  the  ambassadors  that  Smolensk 
should  be  ceded  to  Poland,  but  they  courageously  repelled 
this  proposition.  They  demanded  on  their  own  part  that 
Vladislas  should  leave  immediately  for  Moscow,  as  being  the 
only  means  for  allaying  the  suspicions  to  which  the  conduct 
of  the  king  had  given  rise.  Sigismond  refused.  He  wished 
to  be  Tsar  himself.  Since  he  had  no  hope  of  conquering  the 
scruples  of  the  two  chief  ambassadors,  he  addressed  himself 
to  their  inferior  colleagues.  The  Secretary  Tomila,  on  being 
asked  to  open  the  gates  of  Smolensk,  replied  :  "  If  I  were  to 
do  it,  not  only  would  God  and  the  Muscovites  curse  me,  but 
the  earth  would  open  and  swallow  me.  We  are  sent  to  nego- 
tiate in  the  interests  of  our  country,  not  of  ourselves."  Not 
all  the  Russians  showed  this  probity.  The  disgusting  spec- 
tacle of  the  camp  of  Tushino  was  repeated  at  Smolensk.  Men 
crowded  round  the  king,  as  formerly  around  the  brigand,  to 
wring  from  him  dignities,  land,  and  money.  Soltuikof,  Msti- 
slavski,  and  the  currier  Andronof  especially  distinguished  them- 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OF   THE   TROUBLES.  339 

selves  "by  their  baseness.  At  Moscow  the  boyars  denounced 
each  other  to  the  commandant  of  the  Polish  garrison.  By  the 
suggestion  of  Soltuikof  they  wrote  to  the  king  to  beg  him  to 
make  his  entry  into  Moscow.  The  Patriarch  Hermogenes 
refused  to  sign  the  letter,  and  the  people,  more  patriotic  than 
the  boyars,  supported  the  Patriarch.  Some  few  nobles,  like 
Andrei  Galitsuin  and  Ivan  Vorotinski,  had  the  honor  of  being 
suspected  by  the  Poles,  and  were  arrested  by  Leo  Sapieha, 
successor  of  Zolkievski.  By  permitting  the  Poles  to  enter  the 
towns,  the  oligarchs  had  put  Russia  in  the  power  of  the  King 
of  Poland. 

About  this  time  the  second  impostor  died,  assassinated  by 
one  of  his  private  enemies.  His  death  had  important  con- 
sequences. It  healed  misunderstandings,  as,  since  the  false 
Dmitri  was  dead,  Sigismond  had  no  longer  any  pretext  for 
keeping  his  troops  in  Russia.  The  nobles  had  now  no  motive 
for  distrusting  the  people,  and  could  unite  with  them  against 
the  strangers.  Whispers  were  heard  in  the  streets  of  Moscow 
that  it  was  necessary  to  combine  against  the  Lithuanians. 
Soltuikof  and  Andronof  denounced  these  generous  intentions 
to  the  enemy.  The  Patriarch  Hermogenes,  suspected  of  patri- 
otism, was  thrown  into  prison,  where  he  afterwards  died  of 
starvation.  The  provinces  were  agitated,  and  the  inhabitants 
of  Smolensk  and  Moscow  wrote  to  all  the  towns  entreating 
them  not  to  accept  the  perfidious  enemy  of  orthodoxy  as  their 
prince.  The  citizens  did  their  part,  the  men-at-arms  made 
their  preparations  for  war,  and  Liapunof  collected  an  army  at 
Riazan.  At  his  approach  Moscow  began  to  fill  with  reinforce- 
ments, and  the  Poles  fortified  the  rampart  of  the  Kreml. 
Suddenly  a  quarrel  broke  out  between  the  people  and  the 
soldiers.  In  the  first  heat  the  Poles  and  Germans  are  said  to 
have  massacred  seven  thousand  men  ;  but  resistance  was  organ- 
ized in  the  streets  of  the  Bielui-gorod,  and  the  foreigners,  re- 
pulsed by  Prince  Pojarski,  had  to  intrench  themselves  in  the 
Kreml  and  the  Kitai-gorod.  To  clear  the  neighborhood,  the 


340  HISTORY   OF   BUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

Poles  set  fire  to  the  neighboring  streets.  Moscow  was  almost 
entirely  destroyed  by  the  flames. 

On  hearing  of  the  preparations  of  Liapunof  and  the  revolt 
of  Moscow,  Sigismond  caused  the  Muscovite  ambassadors, 
Galitsuin  and  Philaret,  to  be  arrested,  and  sent  them  pris- 
oners to  Marienburg,  in  Prussia.  A  short  time  afterwards 
Smolensk  fell,  after  a  resistance  compared  by  the  Poles  them- 
selves to  that  of  Saguntum,  though  the  king  was  not  ashamed 
to  torture  the  brave  vo'ievod  Shein,  who  had  dared  to  resist 
him.  He  entered  Warsaw  in  triumph,  and  the  unhappy 
Vasili  Shuiski,  a  Tsar  of  Russia,  was  dragged  a  prisoner 
through  the  streets  in  triumph.  Liapunof  was  now  reinforced 
by  Prince  Trubetskoi  and  Ivan  Zarutski,  at  the  head  of  the 
Cossacks  of  the  Don.  A  hundred  thousand  men  besieged  the 
Poles,  who  were  shut  up  in  the  Kreml,  but  the  elements  com- 
posing this  large  army  were  too  conflicting  and  corrupt  for  the 
enterprise  to  succeed.  The  three  leaders  were  mutually  jealous 
of  each  other.  Liapunof  had  committed  more  than  one  treason, 
Zarutski  had  been  one  of  the  first  to  declare  for  Otrepief,  and 
the  others  were  hardly  more  loyal.  The  soldiers  of  Liapunof 
hated  the  Cossacks,  who  on  their  part  sought  only  occasions 
for  pillage.  The  Poles  managed  to  stir  up  the  men  of  the 
Don,  by  inventing  a  pretended  letter  of  Liapunof,  saying, 
"  Wherever  you  take  them,  slay  them  or  drown  them."  A 
revolt  broke  out  in  the  camp :  Liapunof  was  assassinated,  many 
of  his  adherents  were  murdered,  and  this  great  army  was  mis- 
erably dispersed. 

Russia,  a  prey  to  civil  war,  as  France  in  the  sixteenth  century 
was  a  prey  to  the  wars  of  religion,  suffered  likewise  from  foreign 
intervention.  In  France,  English  and  Spaniards  watched  the 
tides  of  party  success,  and  profited  by  them  all  to  gain  some 
place  or  some  province.  Russia  became  the  theatre  of  war  for 
two  rival  powers,  Catholic  Poland  and  Lutheran  Sweden. 
When  Vladislas  was  proclaimed  Tsar,  Sweden  considered 
itself  offended,  and  acted  as  an  enemy.  De  la  Gardie  took 


1605-1613.]  TIME   OF  THE   TROUBLES.  341 

the  ports  of  the  Baltic;  and  the  boyars  of  Novgorod  the 
Great,  imitating  those  of  Moscow,  opened  the  gates  to  the 
foreigners.  It  was  under  the  protection  of  Poland  that  the 
first  two  impostors  had  arisen  in  the  west  and  south ;  under 
the  protection  of  Sweden  a  third  false  Dmitri  started  up  in  the 
country  of  Pskof.  Marina  Mnishek  on  her  side,  who  after  the 
death  of  Otrepief  had  thrown  herself  into  the  arms  of  the  brig- 
and of  Tushino,  acknowledged  the  Cossack  Zarutski  as  guar- 
dian of  her  son. 

NATIONAL  KISING.  — MININ  AND  POJARSKI.  —  ELECTION  OF 
MIKHAIL  ROMANOF. 

The  situation  of  Russia,  like  that  of  France  during  the  Eng- 
lish wars,  or  the  wars  of  the  League,  was  frightful.  The  Tsar 
was  prisoner, the  Patriarch  captive,  the  Swedes  were  at  Novgorod 
the  Great,  the  Poles  at  the  Kreml,  and  the  higher  nobility 
bought  by  the  strangers.  Everywhere  bands  of  brigands  and 
highwaymen  pillaged  towns,  tortured  peasants,  and  desecrated 
churches.  Famine  increased :  in  certain  districts  men  were 
driven  to  eat  human  flesh.  This  country,  accustomed  to  be 
governed  autocratically,  had  no  longer  any  government.  In 
its  supreme  need,  who  was  to  save  Russia  ?  It  was  the  peo- 
ple, by  a  movement  similar  to  that  which  in  France  produced 
Joan  of  Arc ;  it  was  the  people,  in  the  largest  acceptation  or 
the  word,  including  the  best  of  the  nobility  and  the  patriotic 
clergy.  Already  rumors  of  miracles  showed  the  excitement 
that  possessed  all  minds.  At  Nijni-Novgorod,  at  Vladimir, 
apparitions  were  seen.  The  monks  of  Tro'itsa,  with  the  superior 
Dionysius  and  treasurer-historian  Palitsuin  at  their  head,  sent 
letters  to  all  the  Russian  cities.  The  citizens  of  Kazan  raised 
the  distant  Russia  of  the  Kama.  When  the  despatches  from 
Tro'itsa  reached  Nijni,  and  the  protopope  read  them  to  the 
assembled  people,  a  citizen  of  the  town,  the  butcher  Kozma 
Minin,  rose  and  said,  "  If  we  wish  to  save  the  Muscovite  Em- 
pire, we  must  spare  neither  our  lands  nor  our  goods ;  let  us 


342  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIIL 

sell  our  houses ;  let  us  put  our  wives  and  children  to  service  ; 
let  us  seek  a  man  who  will  fight  for  the  orthodox  faith  and 
lead  us  to  battle."  To  give  up  all,  and  to  take  arms,  such 
was  the  word  that  was  handed  round.  Minin  and  others  gave 
the  third  of  their  possessions ;  one  woman  who  had  twelve 
thousand  rubles  gave  ten  thousand  of  them.  Force  was 
employed  to  make  those  contribute  who  hesitated.  Minin 
accepted  the  office  of  treasurer  of  the  insurrection  only  on 
condition  that  his  fellow-citizens  should  place  themselves  abso- 
lutely at  his  discretion.  A  chief  was  necessary ;  the  people 
saw  that  he  must  be  a  noble.  He  took  the  title  of  The  Elect 
of  the  Whole  Muscovite  Empire.  Prince  Dmitri  Pojarski,  still 
weak  from  wounds  he  had  received  in  the  revolt  of  Moscow, 
was  at  this  time  living  at  Starodub.  Minin  went  to  seek  him, 
and  besought  him  to  take  the  command  of  the  army.  Their 
preparations  then  began,  and  they  fasted  and  prayed.  Russia 
was  felt  to  be  in  a  sinful  condition ;  so  many  oaths  had  been 
taken  and  violated, — to  Godunof,  to  his  son  Feodor,  to  Otrepief, 
to  Shui'ski,  to  Vladislas.  Three  days  of  fast  were  commanded. 
Every  one  took  part  in  it,  even  the  infants  at  the  breast.  With 
the  money  collected  they  organized  the  streltsui  and  equipped 
the  men-at-arms ;  but  they  refused  to  admit  those  impure  ele- 
ments which  had  imperilled  the  national  cause.  They  would 
have  none  of  the  help  of  Margeret,  the  mercenary  who  had 
perjured  himself  so  many  times,  nor  of  the  pillaging  and 
murdering  Cossacks.  They  remembered  the  assassination  of 
Liapunof. 

With  the  army  marched  the  bishops  and  monks  ;  the  holy 
images  were  borne  at  the  head  of  the  columns.  This  enthu- 
siasm did  not  exclude  political  wisdom  ;  they  wished  at  least 
to  secure  the  support  of  Sweden  against  Poland,  so  they 
amused  De  la  Gardie  by  negotiating  for  the  election  of  a 
Swedish  prince.  When  the  troops  had  completely  assembled 
at  laroslavl,  they  marched  on  Moscow.  The  Cossacks  of 
Zarutski  and  Trubetskoi  were  still  encamped  under  its  walls ; 


1605-1613.]  TIME  OF  THE  TROUBLES.  343 

but  these  two  armies,  though  fighting  for  the  same  object, 
could  not  act  together.  An  attempt  to  murder  Pojarski  had 
still  more  imbittered  the  feelings  of  the  army  against  the  men 
of  the  Don.  When,  however,  in  August,  sixteen  hundred  and 
twelve,  the  hetman  Khotkievitch  tried  to  throw  a  detachment 
into  Moscow,  he  was  defeated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Moskova 
by  Pojarski,  on  the  right  bank  by  the  Cossacks.  It  is  true 
that  the  latter,  at  the  decisive  moment,  refused  to  fight ;  it 
needed  the  prayers  of  Abraham  Palitsuin  to  bring  them  into 
line,  and  the  intervention  of  Minin  and  his  troops  to  decide 
the  victory.  The  Polish  garrison  of  the  Kreml  were  then 
pressed  so  close  that  they  were  reduced  to  eat  human  flesh. 
They  capitulated,  on  the  twenty-second  of  October,  on  condi- 
tion that  they  were  to  have  their  lives.  They  gave  up  their 
prisoners,  among  whom  was  young  Mikhail  Romanof. 

The  Kreml  and  the  Kitai-gorod  had  just  opened  their  gates, 
when  the  news  came  that  Sigismond  was  advancing  to  the 
help  of  the  Polish  garrison.  It  was  too  late.  At  the  news  of 
these  events  he  had  to  retrace  his  steps  ;  the  devotion  of  the 
people  of  Russia  had  freed  their  country.  This  year  of  sixteen 
hundred  and  twelve  remained  long  in  the  memory  of  the  na- 
tion ;  and  when  the  invasion  of  eighteen  hundred  and  twelve 
came  to  refresh  their  recollections,  they  raised  on  the  Red 
Place  a  colossal  monument  to  the  two  liberators,  the  butcher 
Minin  and  the  Prince  Pojarski. 

Russia,  once  more  its  own  master,  could  proceed  freely  to 
the  election  of  a  Tsar.  A  great  National  Assembly  gathered 
at  Moscow  in  sixteen  hundred  and  thirteen.  It  was  composed 
of  the  high  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  of  delegates  nominated 
by  the  nobles,  by  the  men-at-arms,  the  merchants,  the  towns 
and  districts.  The  delegates  had  to  be  furnished  with  special 
powers.  It  was  agreed  that  no  foreigner  should  be  elected, 
neither  Pole  nor  Swede.  When  it  became  a  question  of  choos- 
ing among  the  Russians,  scheming  and  rivalry  commenced ; 
but  one  name  was  pronounced  which  gained  all  the  votes,  that 


344  .  .  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XVIII. 

of  Mikhail  Romanof.  He  was  elected  not  for  his  own  sake, 
for  he  was  then  only  fifteen  years  old,  but  for  that  of  his  ances- 
tors the  Romanofs,  and  his  father,  the  Metropolitan  Philaret, 
then  prisoner  at  Marienburg.  The  name  of  Romanof,  of  the 
kin  of  Ivan  the  Fourth,  was  the  highest  expression  of  the  na- 
tional feeling. 

The  new  dynasty  had  better  chances  of  stability  than  that 
of  Godunof  or  that  of  Shuiski.  There  were  no  crimes  with 
which  to  reproach  it ;  it  had  its  origin  in  a  national  move- 
ment, it  dated  from  the  liberation,  and  recalled  only  glorious 
memories.  No  phantom,  no  recollection,  no  regret  of  the  past, 
stood  before  it.  The  house  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  had  been  the 
cause  or  the  occasion  of  too  much  suffering  to  Russia ;  the 
false  Dmitris  had  stifled  the  regrets  for  the  true.  The  acces- 
sion of  the  Romanofs  coincided  with  a  powerful  awakening  of 
patriotism,  with  the  passion  for  unity,  with  a  universal  longing 
for  order  and  peace.  Already  they  inspired  the  same  devotion 
as  the  oldest  dynasty.  It  is  said  that  the  Poles,  on  hearing  of 
the  election  of  Mikhail,  sent  armed  men  to  seize  him  in  Kos- 
troma. A  peasant,  Ivan  Sossanin,  misled  the  Poles  through 
deep  woods  in  the  darkness  of  the  night,  and  died  under  their 
blows,  in  order  to  save  his  prince.  This  is  the  subject  of  the 
beautiful  opera  by  Glinka,  of  "  Life  for  the  Tsar."  The  time 
of  troubles  had  ended. 


VIEW    IN    WOODS. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE     ROMANOFS:    MIKHAIL    FEODOROVITCH 
AND   THE    PATRIARCH    PHILARET. 

1613-1645. 

RESTORATIVE  MEASURES.  —  END  OF  THE  POLISH  WAR.  —  RELATIONS 
WITH  EUROPE.  —  THE  STATES-GENERAL. 


RESTORATIVE  MEASURES.  —  END  OF  THE  POLISH  WAR. 

RUSSIA  had  at  last  a  sovereign,  but  it  was  in  the  situa- 
tion in  which  Henri  the  Fourth  found  France  at  his 
accession.  The  great  civil  and  foreign  war  was  finished,  but 
it  had  left  everywhere  its  evil  traces.  Henri  the  Fourth,  when 
he  became  king,  had  been  obliged  to  reconquer  all  his  king- 
dom, province  by  province,  town  by  town,  half  by  arms  and 
half  by  negotiations,  to  win  it  from  chiefs  of  the  bands, 
leaguers,  great  governors  who  had  become  independent,  and 
foreigners.  In  the  same  way,  in  Russia,  Zarutski,  having  tried 
in  vain  to  raise  the  Don  Cossacks,  had  seized  upon  Astrakhan, 
with  Marina  and  the  son  she  had  borne  to  the  brigand  of 
Tushino ;  the  polish  partisan  Lisovski  was  ravaging  the  coun- 
try of  the  southwest ;  the  Zaporozh  Cossacks  were  infesting 
the  regions  of  the  Dwina  :  scarce  a  province  but  was  a  prey  to 
some  robber-band.  To  be  sure,  the  Poles  had  been  expelled 
from  the  Kreml  as  the  Spaniards  were  expelled  from  recon- 
quered Paris,  but  an  offensive  movement  of  the  enemy  might 
be  expected ;  moreover,  they  still  retained  many  places,  notably 
the  important  town  of  Smolensk.  Sweden  had  profited  by 


346  HISTORY   OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

the  state  of  Russia  to  lay  hands  on  the  cities  of  Karelia  and 
on  Novgorod  the  Great.  In  the  interior  of  the  country  the 
towns  and  cities  were  in  ruins,  the  population  diminished  and 
impoverished,  and  brigandage  had  become  a  universal  plague. 
At  the  Court,  the  Russian  lords  had  learned  to  disobey,  and 
were  not  less  turbulent  than  the  Leaguers  who  surrounded 
Henri  the  Fourth.  What  Russia  needed  was  a  reign  of 
restoration. 

Mikhail  Romanof  had  not  the  genius  of  the  restorer  of 
France.  He  was  almost  a  child,  and  the  boyars  turned  his 
authority  against  himself:  the  silent  and  bloody  intrigues  that 
Ivan  the  Fourth  had  restrained  only  by  capital  punishment 
broke  forth  again,  and  the  ferocious  depravity  of  the  nobles 
was  the  shame  of  Russia.  Quiet  men  and  foreigners  regretted 
Ivan  the  Terrible.  "  Oh  that  God  would  open  the  eyes  of  the 
Tsar  as  he  opened  those  of  Ivan  !  "  wrote  a  Dutchman  at  this 
time ;  "  otherwise  Muscovy  is  lost."  Happily  the  good-will 
of  the  nation  was  equal  to  every  emergency.  The  day  of  the 
coronation  the  men-at-arms  presented  a  request  for  pay,  as 
their  devastated  fiefs  no  longer  gave  them  any  revenue.  The 
Tsar  and  the  clergy  sent  letters  to  the  Russian  towns  to  entreat 
them  to  help  the  state  to  pay  the  troops,  and  to  aid  it  with 
men  and  money  against  the  foes  within  and  without.  Zarutski 
was  the  first  who  was  attacked.  He  had  been  defeated  by  the 
Tsar's  army  near  Voronezh  before  he  seized  upon  Astrakhan. 
Then  he  proclaimed  Marina  the  rightful  Tsaritsa,  but  the 
inhabitants,  outraged  by  his  barbarities,  had  revolted,  and 
he  was  driven  out  of  the  city  by  Prince  Odoevski,  pursued 
by  superior  forces,  and  in  July,  sixteen  hundred  and  fourteen, 
he  was  captured  on  the  banks  of  the  laik  and  sent  to  Moscow. 
Then  he  was  condemned  to  be  impaled ;  the  three-year-old 
Ivan,  son  of  the  brigand  of  Tushino,  in  spite  of  his  youth,  was 
hung,  and  his  mother,  Marina  the  Pole,  died  in  prison.  By 
the  punishment  of  Zarutski  the  turbulent  Don  was  quieted ; 
by  the  imprisonment  of  Marina  an  end  was  put  to  the  claims 


.MIKHAIL  TMK  FIRST 


FORTRESS    OF    SCHLUSSELBUBG. 


1613-1645.]  THE   ROMANOFS.  349 

ment  to  consider  the  best  means  of  helping  the  Tsar,  but  that 
the  Parliament  had  as  yet  decided  nothing,  and  that  he  had 
no  instructions  on  this  head.  "  But,"  said  Kurakin,  "can  you 
not  assure  us  that  your  sovereign  will  send  us  help  in  the 
spring  ?  "  "  How  can  I  guarantee  it  ?  The  journey  is  long, 

and  there  is  no  way  save  that  by  Sweden I  believe, 

however,  he  will  give  you  aid."  Merrick,  having  contented 
himself  with  causing  the  Russians  to  hope,  returned  to  com- 
mercial matters :  liberty  of  trade  by  the  Obi  and  the  Volga, 
concessions  of  iron  and  jet  mines  on  the  Sukhona,  grants  of 
territory  about  Vologda,  for  new  establishments,  and  other 
concessions.  The  Russian  boyars  continued  to  expatiate  on 
the  difficulty  of  the  situation,  and  John  Merrick  went  to  Nov- 
gorod to  negotiate  with  the  Swedes,  where  he  was  joined  by 
the  envoys  of  Holland.  Gustavus  Adolphus,  King  of  Sweden, 
had  obtained  some  successes  over  the  voievodui,  but  he  had 
not  contented  the  Novgorodians,  nor  been  able  to  take  Pskof. 
The  Kings  of  Denmark  and  Poland  were  his  enemies,  and 
he  may  have  felt  a  presentiment  of  the  splendid  career  that 
awaited  him  in  Germany.  He  consented  to  open  a  congress, 
and  in  sixteen  hundred  and  seventeen  concluded  with  Russia 
the  Peace  of  Stolbovo,  by  which  he  received  an  indemnity  of 
twenty  thousand  rubles,  equivalent  to  more  than  ten  times  as 
much  at  present  valuation,  and  kept  Ivangorod,  lam,  Koporie, 
and  Oreshek  or  Schliisselburg,  but  ceded  Novgorod,  Rusa, 
Ladoga,  and  some  smaller  places. 

Russia  was  now  able  to  concentrate  all  its  forces  against  its 
worst  enemy,  the  instigator  of  all  its  troubles.  Before  the 
conclusion  of  the  treaty  of  Stolbovo,  the  diet  of  Warsaw,  at 
the  urgent  entreaty  of  Sigismond,  had  (determined  to  send  an 
army  against  Russia  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  Vladislas 
on  the  throne  of  Moscow  by  force  of  arms.  Vladislas  in  per- 
son took  the  chief  command  of  the  Polish  forces,  with  the  hope 
of  attracting  the  fidelity  of  the  Russians  from  their  legal  sover- 
eign. Dorogobuzh  and  Viazma  were  surrendered  by  the 


350  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

treachery  or  weakness  of  their  voi'evodui ;  but  Mojaisk  and 
Kaluga,  the  latter  defended  by  Pojarski,  resisted  and  arrested 
the  progress  of  the  enemy.  Vladislas,  who  had  all  the  instincts 
of  a  soldier,  resolved  in  sixteen  hundred  and  eighteen  to  march 
on  Moscow.  Mikhail  Romanof,  like  Ivan  the  Terrible,  dreaded 
treason  more  than  the  arms  of  the  enemy,  and  determined  to 
exact  a  new  oath  of  allegiance  from  his  subjects.  He  assem- 
bled the  Estates,  and  informed  them  that  he  was  ready  once 
more  to  suffer  hunger  in  besieged  Moscow,  and  to  fight 
Lithuania,  but  he  asked  in  return  that  the  nobles  should  do 
as  much  for  him,  and  that  they  should  resist  the  seductions  of 
the  king's  son.  Every  one  made  the  required  promise,  and 
fresh  letters  went  out  from  Moscow,  calling  all  the  towns  to  a 
holy  war.  Vladislas,  however,  had  stopped  at  Tushino,  where 
the  hetman  of  Little  Russia,  after  having  ravaged  the  frontiers 
of  the  southwest,  had  joined  him  with  his  Cossacks.  The 
days  of  the  second  impostor  and  of  Tushinism  seemed  to  have 
come  back.  The  Poles,  having  been  defeated  in  an  attack  on 
Moscow,  proposed  a  congress,  which  met  in  December,  sixteen 
hundred  and  eighteen,  at  the  village  of  Deulino,  not  far  from 
the  Troitsa  monastery,  which  during  this  campaign  had  been 
forced  to  withstand  another  siege.  A  truce  of  fourteen  years 
and  six  months  was  agreed  on.  The  terms  of  the  treaty  were, 
that  all  hostile  operations  should  cease ;  that  Vladislas  should 
renounce  his  claim  to  the  title  of  Tsar,  and  Mikhail  his  claim 
to  Livonia,  Tchernigof,  and  Smolensk,  which,  together  with 
Severia,  were  ceded  to  Poland.  Such  a  peace  was  only  an 
armistice ;  there  was,  however,  an  exchange  of  prisoners :  the 
brave  voi'evod  Shein  and  the  Metropolitan  Philaret,  who  had 
been  a  captive  nine  years,  returned  to  Russia,  and  the  latter 
was  at  once  made  Patriarch. 

By  the  return  of  his  father  the  young  Tsar  obtained  the 
counsellor  his  inexperience  had  hitherto  needed,  and  even 
more  than  a  counsellor,  —  a  colleague,  and  almost  a  master. 
Philaret  was  in  some  sort  associated  with  the  throne.  The 


1613-1645.]  THE   ROMANOFS.  351 

empire  had  two  chief  nobles,  two  sovereigns,  the  Tsar  of  all 
the  Russias  and  the  Patriarch  of  all  the  Russias.  They  figured 
together  in  all  public  acts,  and  together  received  the  reports 
of  the  boyars  and  foreign  ambassadors.  It  was  time  that  a 
master  was  given  to  the  boyars.  The  Soltuikofs,  Mikhail's 
favorites,  had  distributed  the  empire  among  their  partisans, 
and  plundered  the  treasury  and  the  nation.  They  were  charged 
with  having  falsely  accused  Mikhail's  first  bride,  who  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  palace,  and  with  having  poisoned  the  second. 
This  was  a  common  practice  with  the  nobles  of  Muscovy,  those 
who  were  in  favor  fearing  a  new  Tsaritsa  above  everything. 
They  shrank  from  no  means  of  removing  her  from  their  path  ; 
and  their  reputation  on  this  head  was  so  firmly  established 
that  the  King  of  Denmark  had  refused  Mikhail  the  hand  of 
his  niece,  because,  "  in  the  reign  of  Boris  Godunof,  his  brother, 
the  betrothed  of  the  Princess  Xenia,  had  been  poisoned ;  and 
this  would  also  be  the  fate  of  this  young  girl."  Philaret  made 
the  boyars  feel  the  weight  of  the  Tsar's  hand,  and  exiled  the 
most  guilty. 

RELATIONS  WITH  EUROPE.  — THE  STATES-GENERAL. 

Russia  had  begun  at  last  to  be  a  European  nation.  Its 
political  or  commercial  alliance  was  sought  from  all  quarters. 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  who  was  making  preparations  to  play  his 
part  as  the  champion  of  Protestantism  in  Germany,  wished  to 
assure  himself  of  the  friendship  of  Russia  against  Poland.  He 
represented  to  Mikhail,  with  much  truth,  that  the  Catholic 
League  of  the  Pope,  the  King  of  Poland,  and  the  house  of 
Hapsburg  were  as  dangerous  to  Russia  as  to  Sweden ;  that  if 
Protestantism  succumbed  the  turn  of  orthodoxy  would  follow, 
and  that  the  Swedish  army  was  the  outpost  of  Russian  security. 
"  When  your  neighbor's  house  is  on  fire,"  writes  the  King, 
"  you  must  bring  water  and  try  to  extinguish  it,  to  guarantee 
your  own  safety.  I  beg  your  Tsarian  majesty  to  help  your 
neighbors  in  order  to  protect  yourself."  The  terrible  events 


352  HISTOEY   OF   EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

of  late  years  had  only  too  well  justified  these  remarks.  The 
intrigues  of  the  Jesuits  with  the  false  Dmitri,  and  the  burning 
of  Moscow  by  the  Poles,  were  always  present  to  the  memory 
of  the  Russians.  A  treaty  of  peace  and  commerce  was  con- 
cluded with  Sweden,  and  a  Swedish  ambassador  appeared  at 
the  Court. 

England  had  rendered  more  than  one  service  to  Russia. 
In  her  pressing  need  James  the  First  had  lent  her  twenty 
thousand  rubles,  and  British  mediation  had  led  to  the' Peace 
of  Stolbovo.  John  Merrick  considered  he  had  the  right  to 
demand  that  Russia  should  open  to  English  commerce  the 
route  to  Persia  by  the  Volga,  and  to  Hindostan  by  Siberia. 
The  Tsar  consulted  the  merchants  of  Moscow.  They  unani- 
mously replied  that  such  a  concession  would  be  their  ruin,  for 
they  could  never  hope  to  rival  the  wealthier  and  more  enter- 
prising English.  They  were,  however,  ready  to  sacrifice  their 
interests  to  those  of  the  empire,  if  the  dues  paid  by  the  for- 
eigners were  essential  to  the  treasury.  John  Merrick  declined 
to  pay  any  dues,  and  the  negotiation  was  broken  off.  They 
paid  him,  however,  the  twenty  thousand  rubles,  as  he  assured 
them  the  King  had  need  of  them  for  the  help  of  his  son-in- 
law,  the  Elector  Palatine. 

In  sixteen  hundred  and  fifteen  the  Tsar  sent  an  envoy  into 
France,  to  announce  to  Louis  the  Thirteenth  his  accession  to 
the  throne,  and  to  ask  his  aid  against  Poland  and  Sweden. 
In  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty-nine  there  appeared  at  Moscow 
the  ambassador  Duguay-Cormenin,  who  was  commissioned  to 
solicit  for  French  commerce  what  had  been  refused  to  English 
trade,  —  free  passage  into  Persia.  He  also  spoke  of  a  politi- 
cal alliance.  "  His  Tsarian  majesty,"  he  said,  "  is  the  head 
of  Eastern  countries  and  the  orthodox  faith  ;  Louis,  King  of 
France,  is  the  head  of  Southern  countries  ;  and  the  Tsar,  by 
contracting  a  friendship  and  alliance  with  him,  will  get  the 
better  of  his  enemies.  As  the  Emperor  is  closely  allied  to 
the  King  of  Poland,  the  Tsar  must  be  allied  to  the  King  of 


1613-1645.]  THE   ROMANCES.  353 

France.  These  two  princes  are  everywhere  glorious  ;  they 
have  no  equals  either  in  strength  or  power ;  their  subjects 
obey  them  blindly,  while  the  English  and  the  men  of  Brabant 
are  obedient  only  when  they  choose.  The  latter  buy  their 
wares  in  Spain,  and  sell  them  to  the  Russians  at  a  high  price, 
but  the  French  will  furnish  them  with  everything  at  a  rea- 
sonable rate."  This  negotiation  for  the  first  Franco-Russian 
treaty  spoken  of  in  history  had  no  result.  As  to  the  route  to 
Persia,  it  was  refused  by  the  boyars,  who  said  that  the  French 
might  buy  the  Persian  merchandise  from  the  Russians. 

Another  ally  against  Poland  offered  itself  to  Muscovy.  The 
Sultan  Osman  sent  to  Moscow  the  Prince  Thomas  Cantacuzen, 
to  announce  that  Turkey  had  already  declared  war  against  the 
king.  The  Russians  asked  no  more  than  to  help  him,  and 
Philaret  and  Mikhail  assembled  the  States-General.  The 
deputies  "  beat  their  foreheads  "  to  the  sovereigns,  beseeching 
them  to  "  hold  themselves  firm  against  the  enemy  for  the  holy 
churches  of  God,  for  their  Tsarian  honor,  and  for  their  own 
country.  The  men-at-arms  were  ready  to  fight,  and  the  mer- 
chants to  give  money."  The  troops  were  already  assembling 
when  news  was  received  that  Turkey  had  been  defeated,  and 
war  was  postponed.  The  preparations  had  revealed  certain 
faults  existing  in  the  national  army,  and  it  was  decided  to 
enlist  foreign  mercenaries,  and  instruct  the  native  soldiers  in 
Western  tactics.  Orders  were  accordingly  given  to  buy  arms, 
and  to  attract  into  Russia  gun-founders  and  artillerymen.  The 
Russia  of  Mikhail  and  Philaret  already  announced  the  Russia 
of  Peter  the  Great ;  the  era  of  reform  had  begun.  Each  day 
Muscovy  strengthened  itself  against  its  European  enemies,  by 
turning  against  them  the  weapon  of  their  own  civilization. 

Russia  remained  quiet  for  eight  years.  In  sixteen  hundred 
and  thirty-two  Sigismond  the  Third  died,  and  the  Elective 
Diet  assembled  at  Warsaw.  Mikhail  was  determined  not  to 
let  this  opportunity  slip,  and  the  second  war  with  Poland 
began.  It  did  not  turn  out  as  well  as  had  been  hoped.  The 

VOL.  i.  23 


354  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

vices  of  the  old  organization  and  institutions  showed  them- 
selves anew.  The  two  voi'evodui  commanding  the  army 
suddenly  became  possessed  with  the  old  mania  of  disputing 
precedence.  They  were  deprived  of  their  command,  and  re- 
placed by  Shei'n  and  Ismailof,  who  crossed  the  frontier  with 
thirty-two  thousand  men  and  one  hundred  and  fifty-eight 
guns.  Twenty-three  towns  surrendered  to  the  Muscovites, 
but  Smolensk  held  out  for  eight  months,  and,  just  as  it  showed 
signs  of  capitulating,  the  Polish  army  under  Vladislas,  now 
King  of  Poland,  made  its  appearance.  On  the  rumor  of  a 
Tatar  invasion  in  the  south,  part  of  the  Russian  nobles  at  once 
hastened  to  the  defence  of  their  own  lands,  and  Shei'n,  thus 
enfeebled,  was  attacked  by  the  king,  and  cut  off  from  com- 
munications. Famine  obliged  him  to  surrender  in  the  open 
field,  and  he  obtained  leave  to  retreat,  though  forced  to  aban- 
don both  his  baggage  and  his  artillery.  His  only  fault  lay 
in  not  understanding  as  well  as  his  Western  adversaries  the 
strategy  of  modern  warfare.  He  was  guilty  only  of  being  a 
Russian  of  unreformed  Russia.  His  enemies,  however,  accused 
him  of  treason  in  a  council  of  war,  and  he  was  condemned  with 
his  colleague  to  be  beheaded.  Philaret  was  no  longer  there 
to  force  the  boyars  to  live  at  peace  with  each  other.  He  died 
in  sixteen  hundred  and  thirty-three.  Vladislas,  successful  at 
Smolensk,  was  defeated  at  Biela'ia,  and  a  congress  was  held 
on  the  Polianka.  The  conditions  of  the  truce  of  Deulino  were 
confirmed.  The  Russians  paid  twenty  thousand  rubles,  and 
Vladislas  renounced  all  claim  to  the  throne  of  Moscow,  and 
recognized  for  the  first  time  the  right  of  the  Grand  Princes 
to  the  title  of  Tsar. 

Shortly  after  there  arose  a  new  occasion  for  war.  In  spite 
of  the  treaties  of  peace  concluded  by  Poland  and  Russia  with 
Turkey,  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  who  were  subjects  of 
Poland,  and  the  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  who  were  subjects 
of  Russia,  still  continued  to  fight  against  Islam.  To  them, 
besides  being  a  holy  war,  it  was  the  means  of  procuring  frocks 


1613-1645.]  THE   KOMANOFS.  355 

or  wide  trousers  of  a  beautiful  scarlet  cloth.  Determined  par- 
tisans and  pirates,  both  on  land  and  sea,  they  were  thorns  in 
the  sides  of  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Grand  Turk, 
attacking  with  their  light  boats  the  heavy  Ottoman  galleys, 
and  insulting  the  coasts  of  the  Bosphorus  and  Anatolia.  They 
were  disavowed  by  their  respective  governments,  and  were 
the  subjects  of  perpetual  recrimination  between  the  Porte  and 
the  two  Slav  states.  They  were  the  brigands  and  corsairs  of 
Christianity,  as  the  Tatars  were  of  Islamism. 

In  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty-seven,  four  thousand  four 
hundred  Cossacks  of  the  Don,  aided  by  one  thousand  Znpo- 
roshtsui  of  the  Dnieper,  surprised  Azof,  and  offered  to  make  a 
gift  of  it  to  the  Tsar  of  Moscow.  The  acquisition  of  such  an 
important  place,  which  would  secure  the  command  of  the  mouth 
of  the  Don  and  access  to  the  Black  Sea,  was  very  tempting 
to  Russia.  Again  Mikhail  Romanof  assembled  his  Estates. 
We  must  observe  that  since  Ivan  the  Fourth  first  assembled 
them  the  meetings  had  become  more  and  more  frequent. 
The  parliamentary  history  of  Russia  dates  from  the  reign  of 
"  the  Terrible."  This  time  the  nobles  declared  themselves 
ready  to  fight  if  they  had  money  given  them  for  their  equip- 
ment, and  begged  the  Tsar  to  exact  it  from  the  clergy  and 
merchants.  The  latter  alleged  that  the  robberies  of  the  pub- 
lic functionaries,  the  prolongation  of  the  wars,  and  the  rivalry 
with  the  Germans  and  Persians,  had  ruined  them.  The  officers 
sent  by  the  Tsar  to  Azof  reported  that  it  was  in  too  bad  a  state 
for  defence.  In  fact,  the  conquest  of  Azof,  like  that  of  the 
Crimea  in  the  time  of  Ivan,  was  premature,  Russian  coloniza- 
tion not  having  as  yet  extended  itself  sufficiently  towards  the 
South.  The  Tsar  gave  orders  accordingly  to  the  Don  Cos- 
sacks for  its  evacuation,  and  they  did  not  leave  one  stone  upon 
another. 

Western  influence  made  considerable  progress  during  this 
reign.  The  merchants  entreated  that  access  into  the  interior 
might  be  forbidden  to  those  strangers  whose  rivalry  was  their 


356  HISTOKY   OF   EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XIX. 

ruin ;  but  the  latter  were,  on  the  contrary,  so  necessary  to  the 
state  and  to  the  general  progress  that  they  had  to  be  invited 
into  the  country  by  all  possible  means.  Under  Mikhail,  more 
foreigners  than  ever  came  into  Russia.  Vinius  the  Dutchman 
established  foundries  at  Tula  for  guns,  bullets,  and  other  iron 
weapons.  Marselein  the  German  opened  similar  ones  on  the 
Vaga,  the  Kostroma,  and  the  Sheksna.  Privileges  were  granted 
to  other  foreign  merchants  or  artisans,  and  the  only  condition 
imposed  on  them  was  not  to  conceal  the  secrets  of  their  indus- 
tries from  the  inhabitants  of  the  countries.  This  is  another 
point  of  resemblance  between  this  reign  of  reform  and  that  of 
Henri  the  Fourth,  who  also  summoned  to  his  kingdom  Flemish, 
English,  and  Venetian  artisans.  One  European  import  did 
not,  however,  find  favor  in  Russia,  —  the  use  of  tobacco  was 
forbidden,  and  snuff-takers  had  their  noses  cut  off. 

Learned  men  were  also  sought  from  Europe.  Adam  Olea- 
rius  of  Holstein,  a  celebrated  astronomer,  geographer,  and 
geometer,  was  invited  to  Moscow.  Already  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  Peter  the  Great  was  foreshadowed.  A  cosmo- 
graphical  treatise  was  translated  from  Latin  into  Russian. 
The  Patriarch  Philaret  had  established  at  Moscow  an  academy 
where  Greek  and  Latin,  the  languages  of  the  Renaissance, 
were  taught.  The  Archimandrite  Dionysius  of  Troitsa,  who 
had  distinguished  himself  in  the  struggle  with  the  Poles, 
undertook  to  correct  the  text  of  the  Slavonian  books,  —  a 
hazardous  enterprise,  which  cost  Dionysius  himself  a  short 
period  of  persecution.  Native  historians  continued  to  re-edit 
their  chronicles,  and  Abraham  Palitsui,  cellarer  of  Troitsa, 
narrated  the  famous  siege  of  the  convent. 


MAP  OF  THE  FORMATION 

of  tke 

TSARATE  OF  MUSCOVY. 


.  "7   *^A>W  White  J 
'  ^r-.Hf    ^/s  ^-^^ 


CHAPTER  XX. 

WESTERN  RUSSIA  IN  THE  SEVENTEENTH 
CENTURY. 

1569  -  1645. 

THE  POLITICAL  UNION  OP  LUBLIN  (1569)  AND  THE  RELIGIOUS  UNION 
(1595).  —  COMPLAINTS  OF  WHITE  RUSSIA.  —  RISINGS  IN  LITTLE 
RUSSIA. 


POLITICAL  UNION  OF  LUBLIN  AND  THE  RELIGIOUS  UNION. 

SPAIN  in  the  sixteenth  century  had  taken  a  large  share  in 
the  troubles  of  Prance  ;  Prance  in  the  seventeenth  century 
dismembered  the  Spanish  Pmpire.  In  like  manner  Poland 
expiated  the  part  it  had  played  in  the  civil  wars  of  Russia. 
After  the  reforming  reign  of  Mikhail  Romanof,  his  son  Alexis 
was  to  inaugurate  the  era  of  reprisals.  Russia  had  almost 
fallen  before  Poland,  like  Prance  before  Burgundy  or  Austria, 
but  it  now  grew  strong  at  Poland's  expense,  and  on  the  ruins 
of  Poland  its  own  greatness  was  to  be  founded.  A  glance  at 
the  constitution  of  the  Polish  Empire  will  show  us  what  inter- 
nal difficulties  prepared  the  way  for  the  external  enemy,  —  the 
Muscovite,  the  Moskal,  as  he  was  called  by  the  men  of  the 
West. 

White  Russia  and  Little  Russia  had  been  conquered  by  the 
Lithuanians,  and  formed  with  them  part  of  the  Polo-Lithuanian 
state.  They  kept,  however,  for  a  long  time  their  Russian 
manners  and  habits.  The  Russian  language  was  used  in  the 
acts  of  legislation  till  the  sixteenth,  and  even  till  the  seven- 
teenth century.  Por  a  short  time,  under  the  early  lagellons, 


358  HISTOKY  OP  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XX. 

it  had  even  been  the  language  of  the  Court.  Soon,  however, 
Polish  influence  predominated  in  the  ruling  class.  The  Russo- 
Lithuanian  nobility  were  divided,  like  the  Polish  nobility,  into 
the  magnates,  who  possessed  large  territories  and  occupied  the 
high  offices,  and  the  lesser  nobles,  who  formed  the  retainers 
and  almost  the  servants  of  the  magnates.  The  military  class 
assembled  in  the  diets  and  dietines.  The  king's  officers  bore 
the  titles  of  voievod,  castellan,  and  starosta.  The  Russo- 
Lithuanian  towns,  like  those  of  Poland,  received  what  was 
called  "  the  law  of  Magdeburg."  They  were  governed  by  a 
bailiff  of  the  king,  who  administered  justice,  assisted  by  the 
burgomaster  and  by  counsellors.  The  trading  classes  organ- 
ized themselves,  after  the  German  fashion,  into  unions  or 
corporations. 

Up  to  that  time  Russo-Lithuania  and  Poland  had  formed 
two  states,  distinct  in  law ;  and  at  the  extinction  of  the  lagel- 
lons,  who  had  always  maintained  them  in  a  personal  union, 
it  was  feared  they  would  again  separate.  Ivan  the  Fourth 
founded  great  hopes  on  this  expected  separation,  but  the  Poles 
in  the  reign  of  Sigismond  made  a  great  effort  to  accomplish 
a  definite  union.  A  diet  was  held  at  Lublin.  The  Russo- 
Lithuanian  aristocracy  were  much  averse  to  the  union ;  differ- 
ence of  religion,  national  pride,  and  interests  arising  from 
separate  existence,  created  a  barrier  between  them  and  Poland. 
The  government  shrank  from  no  means  of  overcoming  their 
resistance.  It  threatened  not  to  defend  Lithuania  against  the 
incursions  of  the  Tsar,  and  to  resume  the  Crown  lands  held  by 
the  refractory  nobles.  In  spite  of  all  these  efforts,  the  Polish 
party  were  almost  checkmated ;  rather  than  yield,  the  Lithua- 
nian deputies  left  the  diet  in  a  body.  At  last  the  king  con- 
trived to  gain  two  of  the  most  influential  members,  — 
Konstantin  Ostrojski,  voievod  of  Kief,  and  Alexander  Tchar- 
toruiski,  voievod  of  Volhynia.  Nikolai  Radzivil,  who  had  so 
long  held  the  Polish  tendencies  in  check,  and  who  was  the 
last  representative  of  independent  Lithuania,  was  dead.  The 


1569-1645.]  WESTERN   RUSSIA.  359 

king  managed  also  to  win  over  the  Little  Russian  nobility, 
who  were  less  hostile  to  Catholic  Poland  than  the  Protestant 
nobility  of  Lithuania.  The  Union  of  Lublin  provided  that  the 
two  crowns  should  be  united  on  the  same  head,  with  equal 
rights ;  that  there  should  be  only  one  general  diet  and  one 
senate ;  that  they  should  sit  at  Warsaw,  a  Mazovian  town, 
which  was  to  become  the  capital  of  the  new  state ;  and  that 
Poland  and  Lithuania  should  preserve  each  its  great  digni- 
taries, —  chancellor,  vice-chancellor,  marshals,  and  hetmans, 
—  each  its  own  army  and  laws.  The  Russian  countries, 
properly  so  called,  underwent  a  fresh  dismemberment.  Little 
Russia  was  specially  united  to  Poland. 

The  natural  result  of  the  Union  of  Lublin  was  the  growth 
of  Polish  influence  in  the  Russian  territory.  On  one  side,  the 
Polish  nobles  had  obtained  the  right  of  acquiring  lands  and 
holding  offices  in  Lithuania ;  on  the  other,  the  Russian  nobil- 
ity, by  mingling  more  completely  with  the  nobility  of  the 
neighboring  country,  adopted  its  ideas,  habits,  fashions,  and 
even  its  language.  It  began  to  be  Polonized,  thus  widening 
the  breach  that  separated  it  from  the  masses  of  the  people, 
who  were  profoundly  attached  to  their  tongue  and  their 
nationality.  The  division  between  the  aristocracy  and  the 
people  increased  still  further,  when  the  nobility  of  the  Russian 
territory  became  more  and  more  permeated  with  Roman 
Catholicism. 

A  special  article  of  the  Union  of  Lublin  insured  respect  to 
the  orthodox  religion.  Poland  and  Lithuania  had  not,  how- 
ever, been  able  to  escape  from  the  great  religious  struggles 
which  at  that  time  were  dividing  Western  Europe,  the  effects 
of  which  were  felt  even  in  Poland.  A  certain  number  of  lords 
had  embraced  Protestantism,  in  such  forms  as  Lutheranism, 
Calvinism,  and  Socinianism.  The  Jesuits,  who  were  every- 
where at  the  head  of  the  reaction  against  reform,  and  whose 
hand  may  be  traced  in  all  the  civil  wars  of  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  soon  made  their  appearance  in  Poland. 


360  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XX. 

Protestantism  had  taken  only  a  feeble  root  in  the  country,  con- 
sequently it  did  not  occupy  them  long  ;  they  then  turned  their 
attention  to  orthodoxy,  the  real  national  religion  of  the  Russo- 
Lithuanian  provinces.  They  employed  the  same  means  by 
which  they  had  hitherto  succeeded  everywhere  in  Europe  : 
they  founded  colleges,  obtained  a  hold  on  the  young  people, 
insinuated  themselves  into  the  confidence  of  the  women,  gained 
the  ear  of  the  kings,  and  made  far  greater  use  of  their  clever- 
ness in  worldly  matters  than  of  the  purely  ecclesiastical  means 
of  preaching,  confession,  and  pilgrimages.  The  brave  Batory, 
who  specially  occupied  himself  with  all  that  concerned  the 
public  peace  and  national  greatness,  kept  them  at  a  distance. 
Thev  found  a  monarch  more  to  their  taste  in  Sigismond  the 

ti 

Third,  a  feeble  copy  of  the  Philips  of  Spain  and  the  Fer- 
dinands of  Austria,  and  well  fitted  to  draw  on  the  East  the 
calamities  that  desolated  Germany  and  the  West.  He  pro- 
tected the  Jesuits,  and  exhausted  all  the  influence  and  seduc- 
tions that  the  throne  put  at  his  disposal,  to  convert  the  orthodox 
nobility  of  his  Oriental  provinces  to  Catholicism.  In  order  to 
enlarge  the  field  of  conversions,  the  Jesuits  invented  a  com- 
promise, which  was  to  obtain  from  the  Russian  clergy  and 
people  their  submission  to  the  Holy  See,  while  their  Slavonic 
liturgy  and  special  usages  were  guaranteed  them  ;  this  is  what 
is  called  the  Union  of  the  two  Churches.  In  fact,  the  union 
once  obtained,  they  thought  it  but  a  step  to  unity,  and  even 
uniformity.  Peter  Skarga  the  Jesuit,  who  published  the  book 
of  "  The  Unity  of  the  Church  of  God,"  wished  to  exclude  the 
teaching  of  Slavonic,  and  admit  only  that  of  Greek  and  Latin. 
In  order  to  make  their  plan  more  easily  accepted  by  govern- 
ment, they  represented  to  it  that  the  effect  of  their  religious 
union  would  be  to  strengthen  the  political  union  of  Lublin, 
and  that  a  true  Polish  Estate  would  not  exist  till  all  the  sub- 
jects held  the  same  faith  as  their  prince. 

At  first,  when  orthodoxy  was  menaced  by  the  King  of  Po- 
land, it  found  a  powerful  support  in  the  Russian  princes,  the 


1569-1645.]  WESTERN  RUSSIA.  361 

descendants  of  Rurik  and  Gedimin.  We  have  seen  Prince 
Kurbski  in  the  time  of  Ivan  the  Fourth,  and  later,  Konstantin 
Ostrojski,  defending  the  faith  of  their  fathers  by  pen,  word, 
and  influence,  and  translating,  compiling,  and  disseminating 
books  in  favor  of  orthodoxy.  Little  by  little,  however,  the 
nobles  yielded  to  the  influence  of  the  Court,  and  in  their 
struggle  with  the  Roman  religion  the  people  saw  themselves 
abandoned  almost  entirely  by  their  natural  chiefs,  and  even  by 
their  bishops.  The  king  filled  the  Lithuanian  sees  with  prel- 
ates who  were  great  princes,  wholly  indifferent  to  theological 
questions,  and  proud  of  their  immense  riches,  of  their  numer- 
ous villages,  and  their  strong  castles  bristling  with  artillery. 
Still  the  people  did  not  give  up  all  hope.  From  Novgorod 
the  Great,  from  Pskof,  from  Germany,  the  principle  of  asso- 
ciation had  spread  widely  among  the  cities  of  Western  Russia. 
Societies  were  formed  for  mutual  assistance,  which  had  their 
roots  in  the  most  distant  Slavonic,  German,  or  Scandinavian 
past ;  they  were  at  the  same  time  religious  confraternities,  and 
took  an  energetic  part  in  the  strife  with  the  Jesuits.  They 
had  their  elected  chiefs,  their  common  treasury,  and  they 
began  to  found  schools,  to  establish  printing-presses,  and  to 
disseminate  polemical  and  pious  books.  They  entered  into 
friendly  relations  with  each  other,  and  formed  ties  with  the 
patriarchs  of  the  East ;  they  used  the  power  of  a  democracy 
in  opposition  to  the  bishops  appointed  by  the  king,  keeping  a 
strict  watch  upon  them,  reprimanding  them  and  denouncing 
to  orthodox  Christendom  the  carelessness  of  their  manners 
and  religion.  The  most  celebrated  of  these  confraternities 
were  those  of  Lemberg  in  Gallicia,  of  Vilna  in  Lithuania,  of 
Lutsk  in  Volhynia.  The  one  in  Kief  founded  the  great 
ecclesiastical  academy  of  Little  Russia. 

Under  the  stimulus  of  these  popular  societies  the  orthodox 
bishops  could  not  long  remain  in  a  state  of  indifference.  They 
were  obliged  to  take  their  position  at  the  head  of  the  orthodox 
believers  or  pass  over  to  the  ranks  of  the  enemy.  Conse- 


362  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XX. 

quently  they  were  in  a  very  difficult  situation  ;  by  remaining 
orthodox  they  incurred  the  disgrace  of  the  government,  and 
at  the  same  time  they  were  harassed  by  their  factious  orthodox 
agitators  on  account  of  their  lack  of  fervor. 

In  fifteen  hundred  and  eighty-nine  Jeremiah,  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  visited  Western  Russia  on  his  return  from 
Moscow.  The  laity  were  not  slow  in  bringing  before  him 
loud  complaints  about  the  disorders  caused  in  the  church  by 
the  misdemeanors  and  indifference  of  the  bishops.  In  defer- 
ence to  these  complaints,  the  Patriarch  removed  the  chief 
prelate,  Onisephoras,  Metropolitan  of  Kief,  and  at  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  laity  consecrated  Mikhail  Ragoza  in  his 
stead.  Mikhail  was  in  reality  a  man  of  irreproachable  life, 
but  weak,  lacking  character,  and  incapable  of  filling  the  chief 
place  in  such  stormy  times.  The  most  active,  shrewd,  witty, 
and  learned  prelate  of  Western  Russia  at  this  period  was 
Kirill  Terletski,  Bishop  of  Lutsk,  but  he  was  rather  an  able 
steward  of  the  church  domains  than  a  priest.  In  his  mode  of 
living,  in  his  habit  of  capricious  violence  and  brutal  expedients, 
he  resembled  a  temporal  lord  of  those  days  rather  than  a  Chris- 
tian bishop.  Nevertheless,  the  Patriarch  appointed  Terletski 
his  exarch  or  deputy,  with  the  duty  of  superintending  the 
bishops  and  removing  those  who  proved  themselves  unworthy. 
This  duty,  which  was  transferred  from  the  Metropolitan, 
diminished  Ragoza's  importance,  and  made  him  feel  great 
displeasure  at  the  Patriarch.  Thus,  instead  of  order  being 
restored,  fresh  elements  of  disorder  were  brought  into  the 
church.  The  Metropolitan  was  annoyed  at  the  foundation  of 
the  exarchy  in  Terletski's  interest;  Terletski  was  annoyed 
because,  notwithstanding  his  office  of  deputy,  he  did  not  enjoy 
the  full  confidence  of  the  Patriarch,  who  received  the  com- 
plaints of  the  other  prelates  against  him.  Finally,  Terletski 
was  engaged  in  a  quarrel  with  the  chief  pillar  of  orthodoxy, 
Prince  Konstantin  Ostrojski,  and  at  the  same  time  was  exposed 
to  a  violent  persecution  from  the  Catholic  party,  headed  by 


1569-1645.]  WESTEEN  RUSSIA.  363 

the  bailiff  of  Lutsk,  who  had  lately  been  converted.  Terletski 
was  taken,  imprisoned,  and  reduced  almost  to  starvation  in  his 
dungeon.  He  complained,  but  no  heed  was  paid  to  an  ortho- 
dox bishop.  Then  Terletski  and  certain  other  prelates  re- 
solved to  free  themselves  from  trouble  both  from  within  and 
without,  and  thus  escape  all  humiliation,  disarm  the  Catholics, 
and  enjoy  the  revenues  of  their  bishoprics  in  peace.  This 
freedom  could  be  obtained  in  only  one  way,  —  a  way  long 
pointed  out  by  the  Jesuits ;  it  was  to  join  the  Union.  The 
bishops  wrote  a  letter  to  King  Sigismond  the  Third,  in  which 
they  consented  to  submit  to  the  Church  of  Rome  on  condition 
that  the  Russian  Church  should  preserve  in  its  integrity  all  its 
rites  and  ceremonies  and  its  service  in  the  Slavonic  tongue. 
Sigismond  received  these  first  defections  with  joy.  Terletski 
soon  gained  a  powerful  ally  in  Ipati  Potiei,  who  had  been 
Castellan  of  Brest,  and  was  now  Bishop  of  Vladimir-in-Vol- 
hynia.  Potiei  showed  himself  a  great  ascetic,  was  devoted  to 
temperance  and  fasting,  was  rigorously  watchful  over  the  church 
interests,  and  kept  himself  aloof  from  the  vanities  of  the  world ; 
but  he  was  very  ignorant  of  ecclesiastical  duties,  indifferent  to 
the  questions  which  divided  the  churches,  and  so  easily  in- 
clined to  the  Union  that  the  friends  of  orthodoxy,  and  espe- 
cially Prince  Ostrojski,  desired  to  forestall  his  defection  by  a 
union  among  the  Eastern  churches.  Potiei  felt  this  to  be 
impracticable,  and  joined  Terletski  in  the  furtherance  of  his 
plans.  They  laid  their  design  before  the  Metropolitan  Mikhail 
Ragoza.  With  his  usual  weakness  of  character,  he  began  to 
balance  advantages  ;  on  the  one  hand,  he  feared  his  opposition 
would  irritate  the  king  ;  on  the  other,  he  feared  the  anger  of 
the  orthodox  and  the  indignation  of  the  prelates  if  he,  without 
their  knowledge,  entered  the  Union ;  consequently,  he  began 
to  play  a  double  game.  All  the  time  that  he  was  pretending 
to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  king's  plans,  and  had  even  ac- 
cepted from  Terletski  and  Potiei  the  promise  of  preferment  in 
the  United  Church,  he  was  writing  to  the  orthodox  lords  and 


364  HISTORY   OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XX. 

confraternities  that  he  did  not  approve  of  the  Union,  and  did 
not  take  any  part  in  it.  He  deceived  Terletski  and  Potie'i  by 
not  joining  them  at  the  time  appointed  for  deliberation.  But 
it  was  impossible  for  him  long  to  play  his  double  game. 
Prince  Ostrojski  sent  a  circular  to  all  the  orthodox,  in  which 
he  attacked  in  vigorous  terms  the  Metropolitan  and  the  bishops, 
accusing  them  of  their  apostasy. 

In  fifteen  hundred  and  ninety-five  Terletski  and  Potiei  left 
for  Rome,  and  there,  on  the  part  of  the  Metropolitan  and  their 
brethren  the  bishops,  they  placed  the  Russian  Church  at  the 
feet  of  Clement  the  Eighth.  The  Pope  celebrated  this  success 
by  pompous  solemnities ;  but  the  projected  union  could  not 
be  realized  without  the  consent  of  all  the  Russian  bishops,  of 
whom  only  three,  the  Metropolitan  and  the  two  Volhynians, 
were  as  yet  gained  over.  Balaban,  Bishop  of  Lemberg,  who, 
although  he  was  having  a  scandalous  conflict  with  the  confra- 
ternity, had  not  sacrificed  the  national  cause  to  his  private 
enmity,  remained  with  Konstantiri  Ostrojski,  the  soul  of 
orthodoxy.  At  Warsaw,  in  the  diet  of  fifteen  hundred  and 
ninety-six,  Ostrojski  and  other  deputies  demanded  the  removal 
of  the  bishops  who  had  deserted  the  Orthodox  Church,  and 
without  authority  surrendered  it  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 
Finally,  in  October,  a  council  was  held  at  Brest,  in  Lithuania, 
under  the  presidency  of  Nikephoros,  envoy  of  the  Patriarch  of 
Constantinople.  Three  times  the  dissidents  were  summoned, 
but  they  refused  to  attend.  Then  the  bishops  formulated  the 
sentence  of  excommunication  and  deposition.  The  Uniates 
hastened  to  retaliate  by  publishing  an  anathema  against  those 
who  clung  to  orthodoxy,  but  their  attempt  in  favor  of  the 
cause  of  Rome  failed  piteously.  The  people  everywhere 
declared  against  them.  At  Vilna  Bishop  Potiei  narrowly 
escaped  assassination  at  the  hands  of  the  citizens.  At  Vitepsk, 
Bishop  Kuntsevitch,  who,  from  a  renegade,  had  become  a  per- 
secutor, raised  a  terrible  riot ;  he  was  stabbed  and  thrown  into 
the  Dwina.  Many  of  the  citizens  were  punished,  and  the  city 


CLEHGY   OF   THE    RUSSIAN   CHURCH. 


1569-1645.]  WESTEKN  RUSSIA.  365 

deprived  of  the  law  of  Magdeburg.  The  Uniates  fished  the 
prelate's  body  out  of  the  Dwina,  and  his  tomb  shortly  became 
famous  for  its  reputed  miracles.  At  Kief,  Veniamin  Rutski, 
a  successor  of  Ragoza,  reorganized  the  convents  on  the  model 
of  Latin  monasteries  ;  the  monks  took  the  name  of  Basilians. 
They  did  not  gain  in  popularity.  A  Little  Russian  saying 
attributes  to  them  the  following  catechism :  "  Wherefore  did 
God  create  thee  and  put  thee  in  the  world  ?  "  "  To  do  the 
lords'  dirty  work." 

The  Eastern  Church  did  not  allow  itself  to  be  defeated  so 
easily  as  the  Jesuits  had  hoped.  It  opposed  schools  with 
schools,  propaganda  with  propaganda;  it  preached  and  it 
printed.  The  Uniate  Rutski  was  replaced  even  at  Kief  by 
Peter  Mohila,  a  zealous  partisan  of  orthodoxy.  He  was  a 
rough  prelate,  such  as  was  needed  in  those  hard  times,  and  an 
old  soldier,  ready  to  meet  force  with  force.  A  monastery  of 
the  diocese  resisted  his  authority ;  he  marched  to  it  instantly 
with  troops  and  guns,  and  chastised  the  rebels.  In  sixteen 
hundred  and  thirty-three  he  made  into  a  college,  like  those  of 
the  Jesuits,  the  school  which  had  been  founded  by  the  confra- 
ternity ;  instituted  professors  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  philosophy, 
and  made  it  the  intellectual  centre  of  Western  Russia,  and  one 
of  the  points  of  departure  of  the  Russian  Renaissance. 

COMPLAINTS  OF  WHITE  RUSSIA.  —  RISINGS  IN  LITTLE 

RUSSIA. 

In  the  diets  of  Warsaw  the  complaints  of  the  orthodox 
clergy  and  of  the  country  people,  who  were  more  completely 
enslaved,  more  cruelly  oppressed,  since  they  no  longer  held  the 
religion  of  their  masters,  did  not  remain  without  an  echo.  A 
deputy  from  Volhynia,  Lavrenti  Drevninski,  exclaimed  at  the 
Diet  of  sixteen  hundred  and  twenty :  "  When  your  Majesty 
makes  war  on  Turkey,  from  whom  do  you  obtain  the  greater 
part  of  your  troops  ?  From  the  Russian  nation,  which  holds 


366  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XX. 

the  orthodox  faith ;  from  that  nation  which,  if  it  does  not 
receive  relief  from  its  sufferings  and  an  answer  to  its  prayers, 
can  no  longer  continue  to  make  itself  a  rampart  for  your  king- 
dom. How  can  you  beg  it  to  sacrifice  all  to  secure  for  the 
country  the  blessings  of  peace,  when  in  its  homes  there  is  no 
peace  ?  Every  one  sees  clearly  the  persecutions  that  the  old 
Russian  nation  suffers  for  its  religion.  In  the  large  towns  our 
churches  are  sealed  up,  and  the  church  domains  are  pillaged ; 
from  the  monasteries  the  monks  have  departed,  and  cattle  in 
their  stead  are  quartered  within  them.  Children  die  without 
baptism ;  the  remains  of  the  dead,  deprived  of  the  prayers  of 
the  Church,  are  carried  out  of  the  city  like  dead  beasts ;  men 
and  women  live  together  without  the  benediction  of  the  priest; 
they  die  without  confession,  without  communion.  Is  not 
this  to  offend  God  himself,  and  will  not  God  avenge  these 
crimes  ?  At  Lemberg  no  one  except  a  Uniate  can  live  in 
the  city,  trade  freely,  and  become  a  member  of  the  union 

of  artisans For  twenty  years  in  each  dietine,  in  each 

diet,  we  have  asked  for  our  rights  and  liberties  with  bitter 
tears,  and  for  twenty  years  we  have  not  been  able  to  obtain 
them.  We  shall  have  to  cry  with  the  prophet,  '  0  God,  judge 
me,  and  judge  my  actions.' '  The  situation  of  the  serfs  had 
become  specially  intolerable :  besides  the  Polish  or  Polonized 
scourge,  the  Jew,  whom  the  noble  had  made  steward  of  his 
lands,  and  to  whom  he  had  given  the  right  ef  life  and  death 
over  his  subjects,  and  farmed  out  the  fishing  and  hunting,  the 
lord,  besides  the  Latin  missionary,  they  suffered  from  a  third 
roads  and  taverns,  even  the  orthodox  Church,  so  completely, 
that  the  peasant  could  neither  marry  nor  baptize  his  child 
without  having  bought  from  this  miscreant  the  right  to 
approach  the  sanctuary. 

The  populations  of  White  Russia  had  suffered,  and  were 
still  to  suffer  long,  without  rebellion.  But  this  was  not  the 
case  with  the  Little  Russian  populations  of  the  Ukraina. 
They  had  colonized  the  steppes  of  the  south,  and  reconquered 


1569-1645.]  WESTERN  EUSSIA.  367 

the  desert  from  the  Tatars.  To  attract  emigrants  to  fill  the 
royal  grants,  the  Polish  lords  offered  twenty  or  thirty  years  of 
absolute  liberty.  Owing  to  this,  the  desert  was  peopled  with 
wonderful  rapidity,  and  on  this  virgin  soil  a  new  nation  was 
formed,  which  was  ignorant  of  slavery,  which  would  not  listen 
to  the  idea  of  only  thirty  years'  liberty,  but  dreamed  of  perpet- 
ual freedom.  The  King  of  Poland  favored  this  race  of  hardy 
pioneers,  these  intrepid  soldiers.  The  Ukraina  was  for  him 
a  sort  of  military  frontier,  a  strong  rampart  for  Poland  against 
the  Tatar  and  the  Turk. 

These  warlike  populations  were  organized  in  twenty  polki, 
or  regiments,  of  Cossacks,  those  of  Pereiaslaf,  Tcherkask,  Mir- 
gorod,  Poltava,  and  others.  Each  polk  had  its  polkovnik,  or 
colonel :  all  obeyed  one  supreme  chief,  the  hetman  of  Little 
Russia,  nominated  by  the  king,  who  presided  over  the  starsltina, 
or  council  of  elders.  The  starshina  was  composed  of  the 
oboznoe,  the  head  of  the  baggage  department ;  of  the  judge  ; 
of  the  pisar,  the  secretary  or  chancellor  ;  of  the  esaul,  or  cap- 
tain ;  of  the  standard-bearer;  of  the  polkovniki;  of  ihetsotnifci, 
or  centurions  ;  of  the  atamans.  When  the  king  invested  the 
hetman,  he  handed  to  him  the  bantchuk,  or  banner,  like  a 
horse's  tail,  the  stick  or  mace,  and  the  seal.  In  time  the 
Cossacks  became  formidable  to  the  King  of  Poland  himself; 
they  incessantly  embroiled  him  with  his  dangerous  neighbor, 
the  Ottoman  Empire.  Batory  was  forced  to  punish  with  death 
more  than  one  Cossack  chief  for  having  violated  a  truce  or  a 
treaty  of  peace,  and  he  also  limited  the  number  of  the  military 
population,  recognizing  as  Cossacks  only  those  who  were  in- 
scribed on  the  register,  to  the  number  of  six  thousand,  con- 
demning the  others  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil,  that  is,  to 
serfage.  But  the  Cossacks  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
labor  due  the  Polish  lords,  nor  would  they  admit  the  limita- 
tions of  the  king.  Notwithstanding  the  register,  they  re- 
mained under  arms,  a  formidable  force,  who  in  the  religious 
struggle  \vere  all  enlisted  on  the  side  of  orthodoxy,  and  who 


368  HISTORY   OF   EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XX. 

caused  royalty  and  the  Uniate  hierarchy  and  aristocracy  to 
tremble. 

Besides  the  Cossacks  of  the  sedentary  populations,  or  the 
Cossacks  of  the  towns,  there  were  also  the  Zaporoshtsui,  the 
men  from  beyond  the  porogi,  the  rapids  or  cataracts  of  the 
Dnieper.  They  stood  in  the  same  relation  to  the  Little  Rus- 
sian Cossacks  as  the  latter  did  to  the  Russo-Lithuanian  popu- 
lation ;  they  were  the  vanguard  of  the  vanguard,  the  advanced 
sentry  of  the  Russian  nationality.  They  had  intrenched  them- 
selves in  the  Veliki  Luki,  or  "Large  Meadows,"  a  fortified 
island  of  the  Dnieper,  and  had  built  a  fort,  surrounded  by  a 
palisade.  They  recognized  no  authority  ;  like  the  Knights  of 
Rhodes  and  Malta,  they  encamped  on  the  land  wrested  from 
the  Mussulmans,  and  continued  the  holy  war  with  Turk  and 
Tatar,  when  Christendom  was  at  peace  with  them.  They 
neither  gave  nor  asked  quarter,  existed  on  the  plunder  of  the 
infidel,  courted  dangers  and  martyrdom,  and  received  no 
women  in  their  camp.  They  were  a  race  of  warrior-monks, 
a  Church  militant,  the  Templars  and  Hospitallers  of  the 
Dnieper.  More  than  one  Polish  noble  of  high  rank  came  to 
join  them  in  their  life  of  adventure  and  heroic  poverty,  and 
learned  from  them  lessons  of  courage  and  chivalry.  All  were 
equal,  all  brothers,  and  ate  like  the  Spartans  at  a  common 
table ;  the  offices  of  the  ataman  of  the  camp,  and  of  the  ten 
atamans  of  the  hiren,  or  Cossack  village,  were  obtained  by 
election.  They  had  intimate  relations  with  the  Cossacks  of 
the  Don,  and  on  land  and  sea  were  the  scourge  of  Islamism, 
—  the  Barbary  Christians  of  the  Black  Sea. 

The  ill-feeling  between  the  aristocratic  government  of  Poland 
and  the  orthodox  population  of  Little  Russia  continued  to  in- 
crease. When  the  Polish  nobles  wished  to  treat  the  free  hus- 
bandmen as  serfs  they  deserted  in  crowds  to  the  countries  of  the 
Ukraina  ;  the  boldest  went  to  reinforce  the  hordes  of  the  Dnie- 
per Cossacks  or  the  camp  of  the  Zaporoshtsui.  Their  blind 
bards  hastened  from  village  to  village,  singing  the  song  of 


1569-1645.]  WESTERN  RUSSIA.  369 

justice :  "  In  this  world  there  is  no  justice,  justice  is  not  to 
be  found  here  ;  now  justice  lives  under  the  laws  of  injustice. 
To-day  justice  is  imprisoned  by  the  nobles  ;  injustice  is  seated 
at  her  ease  by  the  noble  lords  in  the  hall  of  honor.  To-day 
justice  stands  near  the  threshold,  and  injustice  is  throned  with 
the  noble  lords,  and  hydromel  is  poured  out  into  cups  for  in- 
justice. 0  justice  !  our  mother  with  the  wings  of  an  eagle, 
where  shall  we  find  thee  ?  May  God  send  the  man  who  will 
perform  justice,  — may  God  send  days  of  prosperity !  "  These 
wandering  poets  sang  so  persistently,  that  the  villages  were 
emptied  for  the  benefit  of  the  Cossack  camps,  and  justice 
ended  by  spreading  her  "  eagle's  wings,"  and  the  men  "  who 
were  to  perform  justice  "  showed  themselves  openly. 

The  orthodox  religion  persecuted  by  the  Uniates,  the  threat- 
ened serfage,  the  insolence  of  the  nobles,  the  robberies  of  the 
Jews,  the  register  and  its  limitation,  gave  rise  in  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  to  a  series  of  revolts  in  which  the 
Zaporoshtsui,  who  were  always  zealous  adherents  of  orthodoxy, 
in  spite  of  their  brigandage,  played  a  great  part.  Specially 
distinguished  among  the  Cossack  chiefs  were  Nalivaiko, 
Pavliuk,  Ostranitsa,  and  many  others,  whose  memory  has  been 
retained  by  the  wandering  singers  of  the  Ukraina.  The  gov- 
ernment wished  after  each  victory  to  give  satisfaction  to  the 
Little  Russians,  but  their  authority  was  not  sufficient  to  restrain 
either  the  demands  of  the  lords  or  the  intolerance  of  the  Jesuits. 
To  the  horrible  atrocities  perpetrated  on  the  insurgents,  the 
latter  retaliated  at  each  insurrection  by  atrocities  still  greater. 
Each  time  the  government  was  victorious,  and  after  each  defeat 
the  yoke  pressed  more  heavily  on  Little  Russia.  From  these 
successes  sprang  a  new  danger  for  Poland.  The  eyes  of  the 
oppressed  turned  towards  an  orthodox  sovereign,  —  the  Tsar 
of  Russia  ;  the  democratic  populations  of  the  Ukraina  over- 
came their  repugnance  to  authority  when  they  saw  the  lawless- 
ness and  violence  produced  by  Polish  liberties.  The  Cossacks 
imagined  they  could  conquer  if  they  had  an  ally,  and  this  ally 
was  to  be  found  only  at  Moscow. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

ALEXIS   MIKHAILOVITCH    AND   HIS    SON 
FEODOR. 

1645  -  1682. 

EARLY  TEAKS  OF  ALEXIS.  —  SEDITIONS.  —  KHMELNITSKI.  —  CONQUEST 
OF  SMOLENSK  AND  EASTERN  UKRAINA.  —  STENKO  EAZIN.  —  ECCLE- 
SIASTICAL EEFORMS  OF  NIKON.  —  THE  PRECURSORS  OF  PETER  THE 
GREAT.  —  EEIGN  OF  FEODOR  ALEXIE>ITCH  (1676-1682). 


EARLY  YEARS  OF  ALEXIS.  —  SEDITIONS. 

fTUlE  reign  of  Alexis  Mikhailovitch  may  be  summed  up  in 
JL  three  facts  :  the  reaction  against  Poland  and  the  union 
with  Little  Russia  ;  the  struggle  between  the  empire  and  the 
Cossacks ;  the  first  attempt  at  religious  reform  and  the  growth 
of  European  influence. 

The  new  Tsar,  the  son  of  Mikhail  and  Evdokia  Streshnef, 
was  good  and  easy,  like  his  father.  In  his  most  violent  fits 
of  passion,  say  the  contemporary  writers,  he  never  allowed 
himself  to  go  beyond  kicks  and  cuffs.  Though  his  mind  was 
quicker  than  his  father's,  he  gave  himself  up  to  any  one  who 
took  the  trouble  to  influence  him,  even  to  the  point  of  permit- 
ting himself  to  be  ruled  entirely,  —  unlike  Ivan  the  Terrible, 
who,  as  we  have  seen,  never  long  retained  the  same  favorites. 
The  extreme  good-nature  of  the  prince  towards  his  relations 
had  grave  consequences.  The  people  were  oppressed  with 
impunity,  and  were  allowed  to  make  no  complaint.  Alexis 
gave  all  his  confidence  to  the  boyar  Morozof,  who  had  taken 
charge  of  his  education,  and  who  for  thirty  years  had  never 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS  MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOB.  371 

left  him.  Morozof  was  proud,  ambitious,  and  unscrupulous  ; 
but  learned,  intelligent,  and  full  of  shrewdness.  He  excelled 
above  all  in  disentangling  the  diplomatic  complications  be- 
queathed to  him  by  the  last  reign.  When  in  January,  sixteen 
hundred  and  forty-eight,  Alexis  determined  to  marry,  Morozof 
naturally  was  not  disturbed  at  seeing  the  young  bride,  Maria 
Ilyinitchna  Miloslavski,  arrive  with  a  whole  new  dynasty  of 
relations  and  "  men  of  the  time,"  because  the  choice  had  re- 
sulted from  his  manipulations,  and  he  knew  that  the  Milo- 
slavski family  were  subservient  to  his  interests.  Instead  of 
conspiring,  therefore,  as  was  usual,  against  the  health  or  beauty 
of  the  Tsaritsa,  he  preferred  to  associate  her  family  with  his 
power,  and  thus  secure  his  position.  Only  ten  days  after  the 
Tsar's  unostentatious  wedding,  he  married  Anna,  a  younger 
sister  of  Maria  Ilyinitchna,  and  became  the  brother-in-law  of 
his  sovereign.  He  thus  added  to  the  old  title  of  favorite  the 
new  one  of  a  kinsman  by  his  wife,  and  was  strengthened  in 
his  power  instead  of  being  ejected  from  it.  His  influence  with 
his  master  was  greater  than  Richelieu's  with  Louis  the  Thir- 
teenth, and  he  had  the  honor  of  beginning  the  revenge  for  the 
civil  wars,  —  the  war  with  Poland. 

Affairs  in  the  interior  were  always  too  complicated  for 
Alexis  to  be  able  to  act  very  energetically  in  his  relations  with 
foreign  powers.  The  Russian  people  in  the  "  time  of  the 
troubles  "  had  unlearned  the  passive  and  resigned  obedience 
that  had  formerly  distinguished  them ;  they  knew  no  longer 
how  to  suffer  uncomplainingly,  and  complaint  soon  led  to 
revolt.  We  must  also  recognize  the  fact  that  they  suffered 
more  than  formerly.  Russia  had  come  out  of  its  civil  wars 
exhausted;  its  agriculture  and  commerce  were  ruined,  and  its 
population  diminished  by  emigrations  and  the  flight  of  the 
peasants  into  the  Cossack  country.  The  state,  which  was 
already  beginning  to  feel  the  heavy  expenses  of  a  modern 
empire,  which  had  to  keep  up  an  army,  foreign  troops,  all  the 
machinery  of  war,  diplomacy,  and  an  administration,  saw  itself 


372  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXL 

forced  to  increase  the  taxes,  which  fell  more  and  more  heavily 
in  proportion  as  the  population  decreased  in  numbers.  The 
Russian  government  united  the  vices  of  the  past  with  those 
of  modern  times  ;  the  corruption  of  its  agents,  the  impunity 
of  the  favorites  and  their  creatures,  and  the  defective  organi- 
zation of  justice,  tried  to  the  utmost  the  diminished  patience 
of  the  people. 

The  year  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-eight,  which  saw  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Fronde  in  France,  witnessed  a  terrible 
revolt  in  Moscow.  Miloslavski,  a  man  of  great  arrogance  and 
avarice,  had  taken  advantage  of  his  new  position  to  put  his 
relatives  into  places  of  profit,  which  they  abused.  The  indig- 
nation of  the  people  became  boundless,  and,  after  ineffectual 
protests,  as  the  Tsar  was  returning  to  his  palace  from  the 
cathedral,  on  the  first  of  June,  they  stopped  him  and  de- 
manded righteous  judges  and  the  destruction  of  the  monopoly 
held  by  Miloslavski' s  relatives.  Alexis,  powerless  to  stem  the 
torrent,  had  to  deliver  the  judge,  Pleshtcheef,  over  to  the  people, 
who  dealt  him  summary  justice,  together  with  Nasar  Tchistoi, 
the  clerk  of  the  council,  who  by  his  monopoly  had  enormously 
increased  the  price  of  salt,  thus  affecting  the  consumption  of 
fish,  which  was  the  staple  food  of  the  poor.  Then  they  plun- 
dered Morozof's  house  and  those  of  many  other  wealthy  and 
influential  men.  On  the  same  day  a  terrible  conflagration 
devastated  Moscow,  and  that  was  followed  by  a  new  sedition. 
The  people  demanded  the  officer  of  the  crown,  Trakhaniotof, 
who  was  likewise  handed  over  to  them  ;  then,  finally,  their  fury 
turned  against  Morozof  himself,  but  the  Tsar  aided  his  brother- 
in-law  to  escape  ;  he  took  refuge  in  the  convent  of  Saint  Cyril, 
in  Bielozersk,  whence  he  emerged  quietly,  like  another  Maza- 
rin,  when  the  public  excitement  was  calmed.  Though  the 
revolts  which  were  instigated  in  Moscow  by  certain  malcon- 
tents were  thus  easily  appeased,  in  several  other  Russian  cities 
the  people  gave  more  trouble.  At  Pskof  an  insurrection  broke 
out  because  the  Tsar  paid  in  corn  from  the  imperial  granaries 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOE.  373 

of  that  city  the  indemnity  of  forty  thousand  rubles  due  the 
Swedish  government  for  those  who  emigrated  from  the  Rus- 
sian provinces  which  had  been  ceded  to  Sweden.  This  was 
in  accordance  with  the  stipulations  of  a  treaty  subsequent  to 
that  of  Stolbovo,  but  the  rumor  spread  among  the  people  that 
the  traitor  Morozof  was  sending  money  and  corn  to  the  Ger- 
mans, who  would  soon  make  their  appearance  in  Pskof  and 
Novgorod.  Lewin  Nummens  of  Narva,  a  Swedish  merchant, 
who  had  come  with  considerable  money  from  Moscow  in 
February,  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty,  was  seized  by  the  popu- 
lace, tortured,  and  put  in  prison  ;  the  Tsar's  envoys,  the 
vo'ievod  Nikophor  Sabakin  and  Prince  Volkonski,  were  also 
imprisoned,  and  narrowly  escaped  with  their  lives  ;  and  Arch- 
bishop Makari  was  twice  put  in  chains.  From  Pskof  the 
revolt  spread  to  Novgorod,  where  the  German  merchants  were 
first  attacked.  A  Novgorodian  named  Wolk  forewarned  them 
that  they  were  in  danger,  and  many  of  them  had  fled  with 
their  possessions  from  the  city.  But  Wolk,  after  receiving  a 
reward  from  the  Germans,  began  to  instigate  the  inhabitants 
against  the  foreigners  as  traitors  and  friends  of  Morozof,  who 
used  them  as  spies.  The  houses  of  the  Germans  were 
assaulted  and  plundered ;  the  Danish  ambassador,  on  the 
pretence  that  he  was  forwarding  money  to  the  Germans,  was 
attacked  by  the  people  and  left  dead  in  the  street.  Archbishop 
Nikon,  who  tried  to  quell  the  rebellion  by  spiritual  arms,  was 
met  by  blows ;  the  streltsui  made  common  cause  with  the 
people,  and  even  some  of  the  nobles  refused  to  assist  Feodor 
Khilkof,  the  voievod,  in  the  discharge  of  his  duty.  Novgorod 
submitted  only  at  the  approach  of  Prince  Khovanski,  on  the 
twentieth  of  April,  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  The  ringleaders 
were  handed  over  to  the  Tsar's  officers,  but  only  Wolk  was  put 
to  death  in  expiation  of  the  murder  of  the  Danish  ambassador. 
Ivan  Sheglof  and  ten  others  received  the  knout,  and  were  sent 
to  Siberia.  The  three  hundred  remaining  were  either  slightly 
punished  or  set  free  unconditionally.  Khovanski's  troops  were 


374  HISTOEY  OF   RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

insufficient  for  the  reduction  of  Pskof,  which,  behind  its  tried 
ramparts,  with  abundant  supplies  of  -  provisions,  prepared  to 
resist  the  Muscovites,  as  it  had  resisted  the  Poles.  Although 
the  Pskovians  made  many  unsuccessful  sorties,  they  held  out 
until  the  middle  of  August,  and  capitulated  only  under  the 
promise  of  a  general  amnesty,  which  was  brought  by  a  depu- 
tation of  nobles  and  merchants  from.  Moscow.  The  Pskovians 
then  acknowledged  their  fault,  and  voluntarily  surrendered  the 
instigators  of  the  insurrection. 

While  these  seditions  and  revolts  were  in  progress,  an  ad- 
venturer by  the  name  of  Timoshka  Ankudinof,  the  son  of  a 
linen-draper  in  Ukraina,  determined  to  play  the  part  of  another 
false  Dmitri.  By  the  connivance  of  a  Polish  nobleman  he 
proclaimed  himself  the  son  of  the  Tsar  Vasili  Shui'ski,  using 
for  proof  certain  mysterious  marks  which  were  imprinted  on 
his  body.  A  Greek  priest  interpreted  them  in  accordance  with 
this  theory.  He  was  received  with  some  distinction  at  the 
Court  of  Vladislas,  was  sent  to  Constantinople  with  letters  of 
recommendation,  but  being  refused  by  the  Sultan  he  went  to 
Vienna,  thence  to  Stockholm,  and  was  finally  delivered  over 
to  the  Tsar  in  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-four,  by  the  Duke 
Priedrich  of  Holstein,  and  was  quartered  alive.  The  old  trick 
of  imposture  had  become  too  palpable  to  have  any  effect  upon 
even  the  credulous  masses. 

It  was  now  time  to  turn  against  external  enemies  the  spirit 
of  turbulence  that  the  civil  war  had  left  in  the  masses. 
Happily  for  Russia,  Poland  was  still  more  profoundly  agi- 
tated, and  a  revolt  more  considerable  than  those  of  Moscow, 
Pskof,  or  Novgorod  was  to  open  to  the  Muscovite  armies  the 
entrance  into  the  Ukraina. 

KHMELNITSKI.  —  CONQUEST  OF   SMOLENSK   AND   EASTERN 
UKRAINA.  —  STENKO  RAZIN. 

We  have  seen  that  Little  Russia,  after  many  partial  risings, 
was  waiting  only  for  a  chief  to  break  out  into  a  general  insur- 


WOMEN    OF    PSKOF. 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  375 

rection.  This  chief  was  found  in  Bogdan  Khmelnitski,  —  a 
brave,  clever,  energetic,  and  even  educated  Cossack.  His 
father  had  been  a  Polish  noble,  and  for  some  crime  had  taken 
refuge  with  the  Cossacks,  married  a  Cossack  maiden,  and  had 
been  considered  a  famous  warrior.  His  only  son,  Bogdan 
Khmelnitski,  after  a  training  in  Kief  and  probably  in  a  Jesuit 
college,  was  advanced  to  the  position  of  Notary  of  the  Cos- 
sacks, and  as  a  reward  for  his  faithful  services  received  the 
estate  of  Subotovo,  about  a  mile  from  Tchigirin,  the  principal 
city  of  the  Cossacks,  situated  near  the  Rapids.  The  Pole 
Tchaplinski,  under-bailiff  of  Tchigirin,  envious  of  Bogdan's 
good  fortune,  on  the  pretext  that  Subotovo  belonged  to  the 
bailiff,  managed  to  drive  him  from  the  estate,  seduced  his  wife, 
while  he  was  in  Warsaw  seeking  justice,  and  also  seized  his 
son,  a  boy  of  ten  years,  and  had  him  whipped  in  the  public 
market-place  by  his  men.  Khmelnitski  could  obtain  neither 
redress  for  himself  nor  help  for  his  countrymen  against  the 
Jews  and  the  taxes.  But  King  Vladislas  is  said  to  have  told 
him  that  the  senators  would  not  obey  their  king,  and,  drawing 
a  sword  on  paper,  he  handed  it  to  Bogdan,  observing,  "  This 
is  the  sign  royal :  if  you  have  arms  at  your  sides,  resist  those 
who  insult  and  rob  you ;  revenge  your  wrongs  with  your 
swords,  and  when  the  time  comes  you  will  help  me  against 
the  pagans  and  the  rebels  of  my  kingdom."  In  the  Polish 
anarchy  of  that  date  it  is  quite  possible  that  the  king  may 
have  held  this  language,  and  himself  placed  the  sword  in  the 
hands  of  those  whom  he  could  not  protect.  Vladislas  then 
gave  Bogdan  the  staff  and  colors  of  a  Cossack  hetman,  and 
in  return  Bogdan  promised  him  the  following  year  a  body  of 
twelve  thousand  men. 

The  royal  field-marshal  Konetspolski,  one  of  the  richest 
landholders  of  Poland,  in  sixteen  hundred  and  thirty-five 
caused  the  French  engineer  Beauplan  to  build  a  strong  fortress 
on  the  first  of  the  rapids  above  Kief.  Hardly  was  the  new 
work  completed  before  Soliman,  the  Cossack  commander,  on 


376  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

his  return  from  an  expedition,  attacked  it  and  cut  off  the  gar- 
rison. But  soon  after  he  was  seized  by  Konetspolski,  sent  to 
Warsaw,  and  executed.  Two  years  later  eighteen  thousand 
Cossacks  seized  their  arms  and  deposed  the  royal  hetman,  but 
were  defeated  by  Nikolai  Pototski,  and  a  third  of  their  num- 
ber were  left  dead  on  the  field.  Thereupon  the  Diet  still 
further  reduced  the  privileges  of  the  Cossacks,  and  in  all 
respects  they  were  treated  like  slaves.  Consequently,  when 
Bogdan  Khmelnitski  informed  them  of  the  secret  stipulations 
of  the  king,  they  acknowledged  him  as  their  hetman  in  six- 
teen hundred  and  forty-eight,  and  were  ready  to  unite  with  a 
Mussulman  army  against  the  hated  Polish  nobility.  Bogdan 
then  passed  over  to  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  who,  when  he 
found  that  the  Cossacks  were  in  earnest,  furnished  him  with 
forces.  To  Tatars  and  Zaporoshtsui  were  soon  added  all  the 
malcontents  of  Little  Russia.  Cossacks  and  people  were  alike 
determined  to  finish  with  it.  When  Nikolai  Pototski  learned 
from  the  Jewish  tax-gatherers  the  news  of  the  commotions 
among  the  Cossacks,  he  sent  against  them  his  son  Stephan 
with  an  army  of  five  thousand  men,  of  whom  thirty-five  hun- 
dred were  registered  Cossacks,  who  immediately  deserted  to 
Khmelnitski  at  the  battle  of  the  "  Yellow  Waters."  Bogdan 
was  then  reinforced  by  an  army  of  forty  thousand  men  under 
Tohaibeg,  and  Stephan  Pototski  and  his  whole  force  were  taken 
prisoners.  Finally,  he  defeated  Nikolai  Pototski  at  Kersun, 
and  captured  eight  thousand  men  and  forty-one  guns.  The 
generals  were  given  to  the  Tatars  as  a  reward,  and  one  of  them, 
Sienavski,  was  ransomed  for  twenty  thousand  ducats.  This 
double  victory  was  the  signal  of  a  general  insurrection.  The 
orthodox  clergy  everywhere  preached  a  crusade  against  the 
Jesuits  and  Uniates,  and  everywhere  the  peasants  rose  against 
the  Polish  or  Polonized  nobles.  The  castles  were  demolished, 
the  governors  put  to  death.  The  Jews  were  in  a  sad  strait. 
According  to  a  popular  song,  they  only  asked  one  thing,  — 
to  be  allowed  "  to  escape  in  their  shirts  beyond  the  Vistula, 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  377 

abandoning  their  wealth  to  the  Cossacks,  and  promising  to 
teach  their  children  to  live  honestly,  and  to  covet  no  more  the 
land  of  the  Ukraina." 

Khmelnitski  now  thought  that  he  had  attained  all  the  ad- 
vantage that  was  necessary,  and  in  June,  eighteen  hundred 
and  forty-eight,  he  wrote  the  king  a  letter,  explaining  how  the 
Cossacks,  after  vainly  asking  for  their  rights,  had  been  obliged 
to  use  force  in  order  to  bring  their  Polish  oppressors  to  terms. 
He  went  on  to  say  that  they  were  ready  to  take  an  oath  of 
faithful  allegiance  so  soon  as  their  grievances  should  be  re- 
dressed. The  king  never  received  this  letter,  for  at  this  critical 
moment  for  Poland  he  died,  in  consequence  of  a  cold  caught 
while  on  a  hunting  expedition  in  Lithuania,  and  the  Diet  met 
at  Warsaw  for  the  election  of  a  new  king,  with  all  its  accus- 
tomed turbulence.  At  this  news  the  revolt  in  Little  Russia 
increased.  Wherever  the  nobles  could  defend  themselves,  they 
gave  back  cruelty  for  cruelty.  leremia  Vishnevetski,  a  pow- 
erful Polonized  Russian  lord,  assaulted  a  town  belonging  to 
him,  and  took  vengeance  in  the  most  horrible  manner  upon 
those  who  had  revolted  from  him.  "  Make  them  suffer,"  he 
cried  to  the  executioners,  "  they  must  be  made  to  feel  death  "  ; 
and  his  prisoners  were  impaled.  The  Cossacks,  who,  now  that 
Vladislas  was  dead,  had  no  one  to  whom  they  could  look  for 
justice,  broke  out  more  violently  than  ever ;  they  felt  that  they 
were  fighting  for  life  or  death,  that  there  was  for  them  no 
choice  but  between  total  extinction  and  absolute  liberty. 
Khmelnitski  pursued  his  course  of  success ;  he  defeated  the 
Poles  near  Pilava,  and  penetrated  into  Gallicia  as  far  as  Lvof, 
or  Lemberg,  a  rich,  half-Jewish  city,  which  had  to  pay  a  war 
indemnity.  He  was  besieging  Zamostie  when  he  learned  that 
Ian  Kasimir  was  elected  in  the  place  of  his  brother  Vla- 
dislas. The  new  king  at  once  sent  envoys  to  bring  about  an 
understanding.  Adam  Kisiel,  Maximilian  Brsovski,  Castellan 
of  Kief,  and  other  Poles  of  high  rank,  met  Khmelnitski  in 
Pereiaslavl  in  February,  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-nine.  They 


378  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXL 

brought  him  from  the  king  the  commission  of  hetman,  the 
hetman's  staff  set  with  sapphires,  and  a  red  flag  decorated  with 
the  white  eagle  and  the  king's  name.  Khmelnitski  appeared 
in  rich  clothing,  and  poured  out  brandy  into  golden  cups  for 
the  commissioners.  His  wife,  decked  with  diamonds  and 
precious  stones,  filled  their  pipes.  But  he  refused  to  treat 
with  them  except  openly  in  the  market-place.  The  commis- 
sioners promised  them  the  free  use  of  their  religion,  and  that 
all  the  Cossacks  should  have  their  former  rights  and  privileges ; 
but  they  demanded  that  all  the  insurgent  peasants  should  forth- 
with return  to  their  ploughs  and  herds.  "  Let  the  Cossacks 
alone  bear  arms,"  said  the  Poles.  A  universal  shout  of  in- 
dignation arose  at  these  terms.  Bogdan  then  broke  up  the 
assembly,  and  when,  five  days  later,  the  commissioners  were 
about  to  withdraw,  he  offered  them  terms  of  peace  which  they 
in  turn  rejected.  Bogdan  could  abandon  neither  the  Cos- 
sacks, who  would  not  hear  of  the  register,  7ior  the  peasants, 
whose  revolt  had  given  him  the  victory.  "  The  time  for  nego- 
tiations is  past,"  he  said  to  the  commissioners  ;  "  I  must  free 
the  whole  Russian  nation  from  the  yoke  of  the  Poles.  At  first 
I  took  up  arms  to  avenge  my  own  injuries ;  now  I  am  fighting 
for  the  orthodox  faith.  The  people,  as  far  as  Lublin,  as  far  as 
Cracow,  will  stand  by  me.  I  will  not  betray  them."  The 
war  then  began  anew.  Khmelnitski's  army  consisted  of  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  Cossacks  and  armed  peasants,  and 
in  addition  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  sent  him  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  Tatar  cavalry.  The  Polish  forces,  strongly  in- 
trenched at  Zbarash,  were  entirely  surrounded,  but  they  held 
out  from  the  tenth  of  July  until  the  fifteenth  of  August,  when 
the  king  arrived  in  person  with  reinforcements.  Ian  Kasimir 
found  himself  at  Zborovo  surrounded  by  the  innumerable 
cavalry  of  the  enemy.  It  would  have  been  all  over  with  him 
had  he  not  purchased  the  defection  of  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea 
by  a  large  sum,  and  the  promise  of  an  annual  tribute.  The 
Khan  then  retired,  assuring  his  ally  that  the  king  pardoned 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOE.  379 

the  Cossacks,  and  was  ready  to  take  their  commander  into  his 
favor.  Under  these  circumstances  a  treaty  was  brought  about ; 
the  Cossacks  were  restored  to  their  former  privileges;  and, 
though  the  register  was  re-established,  the  number  of  Cossacks 
enrolled  was  raised  to  forty  thousand ;  Bogdan  was  recognized 
hetman  of  Little  Russia,  and  the  town  of  Tchigirin  assigned 
to  him  as  a  residence.  It  was  agreed  that  there  should  be 
neither  Crown  troops  nor  Jews  in  the  localities  inhabited  by 
the  Cossacks,  and  no  Jesuits  where  orthodox  schools  existed. 
The  Metropolitan  of  Kief  was  to  have  a  seat  in  the  senate  of 
Warsaw. 

What  Bogdan  had  foreseen  when  he  refused  to  come  to 
terms  really  happened ;  the  treaty  could  not  be  executed. 
The  number  of  fighting  men  who  had  taken  part  in  the  elec- 
tion exceeded  forty  thousand,  —  were  those  in  excess  to  be 
relegated  to  the  work  of  the  fields,  to  forced  labor  for  the 
lords  ?  The  people  had  helped  the  Cossacks,  —  were  they 
then  to  be  surrendered  to  their  masters  who  would  not  be 
likely  to  show  themselves  very  cordial  to  those  who  had  de- 
serted from  them?  Bogdan  soon  found  himself  involved  in 
inextricable  difficulties  :  on  one  side  he  was  violating  the  treaty 
to  enroll  more  than  forty  thousand  men  in  his  register ;  on  the 
other  hand,  if  he  executed  it,  he  would  have  to  begin  by  in- 
flicting death  on  those  who  refused  to  submit.  He  was  wear- 
ing out  his  popularity  in  performing  this  ungrateful  task. 
His  subjects  grew  rebellious,  and  sent  him  a  deputation  who 
said  that  if  he  were  playing  the  traitor  to  them,  he  must  be 
prepared  to  see  a  successor  take  his  place.  He  preferred  to 
resume  warlike  operations,  with  the  excuse  that  the  Poles  had 
broken  certain  clauses  of  the  treaty.  This  war  was  less  suc- 
cessful than  the  first ;  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  who  a  second 
time  came  to  the  aid  of  the  Cossacks,  by  his  cowardice  a 
second  time  betrayed  them,  and  the  Cossacks  were  beaten  at 
Berestetchko.  The  conditions  of  the  Peace  concluded  at  the 
village  of  Bielaia  Tserkov,  or  White  Church,  were  more  severe 


380  HISTOEY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXL 

than  those  of  the  first  treaty.  The  number  of  registered  Cos- 
sacks was  reduced  to  twenty  thousand ;  and  twenty  thousand 
more,  thus  finding  themselves  excluded  from  the  army,  were 
thrown  back  upon  the  people.  Being  restricted  to  the  vicinity 
of  Kief  and  unable  to  find  the  means  of  subsistence,  the  greater 
part  chose  rather  to  emigrate  to  Russian  soil,  to  wander  to  the 
Don,  or  to  live  by  brigandage  on  the  Volga. 

A  peace  such  as  this  was  only  a  truce,  and  the  Cossacks 
were  certain  to  break  it  as  soon  as  they  could  find  an  ally. 
Bogdan  wrote  to  entreat  the  Tsar  to  take  Little  Russia  under 
his  protection.  The  government  of  Alexis  had  been  seeking 
for  some  time  a  pretext  for  rupture  with  Poland.  The  Polish 
government,  in  writing  to  the  Tsar,  had  not  used  the  full  royal 
title.  Moscow  never  missed  an  opportunity  for  remonstrance ; 
Warsaw  assured  them  that  it  was  pure  inadvertence.  "  Then," 
said  the  Russians,  "  an  example  must  be  made  of  the  guilty." 
No  example  was  made,  and  the  diminution  of  title  was  used 
at  every  interchange  of  notes.  The  Court  of  Russia  had  been 
keeping  up  this  excuse  for  war,  and  was  waiting  for  a  moment 
to  profit  by  it ;  this  was  found  in  the  appeal  of  Khmelnitski. 
The  Estates  were  convoked,  and  to  them  were  reported  the 
repeated  insults  to  his  Tsarian  Majesty,  and  the  persecution  of 
the  true  faith  in  Little  Russia.  It  was  added,  that  the  Little 
Russians,  if  the  Tsar  refused  to  come  to  their  aid,  would  have 
to  place  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  Sultan.  On 
this  occasion  the  Estates  declared  for  war.  Alexis  sent  the 
boyar  Buturlin  to  receive  the  oath  of  the  hetman,  the  army, 
and  the  people  of  Little  Russia. 

It  was  time  for  the  Tsar  to  decide.  Bogdan,  betrayed  a 
third  time  by  the  Khan,  had  been  defeated  at  Ivanets  on  the 
Dniester,  but  on  receipt  of  the  news  from  Moscow,  in  January, 
sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-four,  he  called  the  General  Assembly 
at  Pereiaslavl  to  announce  to  them  the  fact.  "  Noble  colonels, 
captains,  and  centurions,  and  you  army  of  Zaporoshtsui,  and 
you  orthodox  Christians,"  cried  the  hetman,  "  you  see  it  is  no 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS  MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  381 

longer  possible  to  live  without  a  prince.  Now  we  have  four 
to  choose  from :  the  Sultan  of  Turkey ;  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea ; 
the  King  of  Poland ;  and  the  Tsar  of  orthodox  Great  Russia, 
whom  for  six  years  we  have  not  ceased  to  entreat  to  become 
our  Tsar  and  lord.  The  Sultan  is  a  Mussulman ;  we  know 
what  our  brethren  the  orthodox  Greeks  suffered  at  his  hands. 
The  Khan  is  also  a  Mussulman,  and  our  alliances  with  him 
have  brought  us  nothing  but  trouble.  It  is  needless  to  remind 
you  of  what  the  Polish  nobles  have  made  us  endure.  But  the 
orthodox  Christian  Tsar  is  of  the  same  religion  as  ourselves. 
We  shall  not  find  a  better  support  than  his.  Whoever  thinks 
otherwise  may  go  where  he  likes,  the  way  is  open."  The  air 
rang  with  applause ;  the  multitude  cried  out  with  one  voice, 
"  We  will  go  with  the  Eastern  Tsar  "  ;  the  oath  demanded  by 
Buturlin  was  taken ;  and  an  embassy  set  out  for  Moscow,  to 
ask  the  maintenance  of  Ukrainian  liberties.  The  Tsar  freely 
granted  all  their  conditions :  the  army  was  to  be  raised  per- 
manently to  the  number  of  sixty  thousand  ;  the  Cossacks  were 
to  elect  their  hetman;  the  rights  of  their  nobility  and  the 
towns  were  to  be  maintained ;  the  administration  of  the  towns 
and  the  imposition  of  taxes  were  to  be  intrusted  to  the  natives  ; 
the  hetman  was  to  have  the  right  of  receiving  foreign  ambas- 
sadors, but  was  to  signify  the  fact  to  the  Tsar ;  and  he  was 
forbidden,  without  special  leave,  to  receive  the  envoys  of  Tur- 
key and  Poland. 

In  May,  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-four,  the  Tsar  Alexis 
solemnly  announced  in  the  Uspienski  Sobor,  the  Cathedral 
of  the  Assumption,  that  he  had  resolved  to  march  in  person 
against  his  enemy,  the  King  of  Poland.  He  commanded  that 
in  this  campaign  no  occasion  should  be  given  for  the  generals 
to  dispute  precedence.  The  Polish  voi'evodui  affirm  that  on 
this  occasion  "  Moscow  made  war  in  quite  a  new  way,  and 
conquered  the  people  by  the  clemency  and  gentleness  of  the 
Tsar."  This  humanity,  so  well-timed  in  a  war  of  deliverance, 
contributed  greatly  to  the  success  of  the  Muscovites.  Polotsk, 


382  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

Mohilef,  and  all  the  towns  of  White  Russia,  in  sixteen  hundred 
and  fifty-four,  opened  their  gates,  one  after  the  other;  and 
Smolensk,  strongly  fortified  and  garrisoned,  resisted  only  five 
weeks,  and  its  final  surrender  was  attributed  to  the  treason  of 
its  commander.  The  following  year  the  Prince  Tcherkasski 
defeated  the  hetman  Radzivil,  and  began  the  conquest  of 
Lithuania  proper ;  Vilna,  the  capital,  Grodno,  and  Kovno,  fell 
successively.  During  this  time  Khmelnitski  and  the  Mus- 
covites invaded  Southwestern  Poland  and  took  Lublin.  All 
the  East  resounded  with  the  Russian  victories  :  it  was  said  at 
Moscow  that  the  Greeks  prayed  for  the  Tsar  and  refused 
obedience  to  any  but  an  orthodox  emperor,  and  that  the 
Hospodars  of  Valakhia  and  Moldavia  implored  Alexis  to 
take  them  under  his  protection. 

Poland  seemed  reduced  to  the  last  extremity;  and  there 
was  still  a  third  enemy  to  fall  on  her.  Charles  the  Tenth, 
King  of  Sweden,  dissatisfied  with  the  conquests  of  Alexis, 
arrived  and  captured  Poznania,  Warsaw,  and  Cracow,  the  three 
Polish  capitals.  The  King  Ian  Kasimir  saved  himself  only  by 
escaping  from  Cracow  to  Silesia.  This  conflict  of  ambitions 
was,  however,  the  salvation  of  the  country ;  the  Swede  threat- 
ened the  Russian  conquests,  and  claimed  Lithuania.  He 
entered  into  relations  with  Khmelnitski,  who  forgot  the  oath 
he  had  taken ;  it  was  the  situation  of  Charles  the  Twelfth  and 
Mazeppa  half  a  century  before  their  day.  The  Tsar  Alexis  feared 
that  he  had  shaken  Poland  only  to  strengthen  Sweden,  and 
would  not  risk  the  reunion  of  these  two  formidable  monarchies 
under  the  same  sceptre.  He  hastened  to  negotiate  with  the 
Poles,  who  promised  to  elect  him  after  the  death  of  their  pres- 
ent king ;  then  he  turned  his  arms  against  Sweden.  On  the 
Baltic,  the  latter  was  the  heir  of  the  Livonian  Order.  Alexis 
trod  in  the  steps  of  Ivan  the  Terrible ;  like  him,  his  successes 
were  rapid,  but  they  as  rapidly  vanished  in  smoke.  He  took 
Diinaburg  and  Kokenhusen,  two  old  castles  of  the  Knights ; 
but  the  Russians  besieged  Riga  in  vain,  and  succeeded  no 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS  MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  383 

better  at  Oreshek  or  Kexholm.  The  occupation  of  Dorpat 
in  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-six  terminated  the  first  campaign  ; 
after  that,  hostilities  languished,  and  Alexis  concluded  a  truce 
of  twenty  years,  which  secured  him  Dorpat  and  a  part  of  his 
conquests.  The  affairs  of  Poland  and  Little  Russia  became, 
however,  so  terribly  complicated  in  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
one,  that  the  truce  became  the  Peace  of  Kardis,  by  which 
Alexis  abandoned  all  Livonia. 

The  hetman  Khmelnitski  had  more  than  once  given  his  new 
sovereign  cause  for  discontent.  In  spite  of  his  oath,  he  had 
negotiated  with  Sweden  and  Poland.  In  fact,  now  that  he 
had  got  rid  of  his  former  master,  he  did  not  want  to  become 
the  vassal  of  a  new  sovereign,  but  to  create  a  third  Slav  state 
between  Poland  and  Russia,  and  to  remain  its  independent 
sovereign.  This  hope  was  shared  by  the  Cossacks.  They 
had  revolted  against  Poland  because  the  king  was  weak  and 
could  not  make  himself  respected  by  the  aristocracy;  they 
feared  the  Tsar  of  Muscovy  would  be  only  too  strong.  All 
government,  all  authority,  was  a  burden  to  the  free  Cossack. 

Bogdan,  however,  kept  up  the  appearances  of  submission. 
His  death,  in  July,  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-seven,  was  the 
signal  for  disorder.  His  son  luri  was  only  sixteen  years  of 
age,  but  the  assembly  of  the  people,  in  honor  of  his  father, 
elected  him  hetman.  Ivan  Vigovski,  chancellor  of  the  Cossack 
army,  was  chosen  to  be  his  guardian.  Vigovski,  however, 
desired  to  have  exclusive  command,  and  he  himself  took  the 
mace  of  the  hetman ;  but  Martin  Pushkar,  the  polkovnik,  or 
colonel,  of  Poltava,  and  the  Zaporoshtsui,  refused  to  recognize 
him.  Vigovski,  Pushkar,  and  the  Zaporozh  ataman  denounced 
each  other  at  Moscow.  Vigovski  caused  Pushkar  to  be  assassi- 
nated, and  made  advances  to  Poland,  to  secure  himself  an  ally 
against  the  Tsar ;  he  also  applied  to  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea, 
and  with  his  assistance  defeated  Prince  TrubetskoY  at  Konotop ; 
but  after  the  Khan  had  retired  from  Little  Russia  the  majority 
of  the  Cossacks  declared  for  Moscow,  and  obliged  Vigovski  to 


384  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

fly  to  Poland.  luri  Khmelnitski  placed  himself  at  the  head 
of  those  who  were  dissatisfied,  and  was  again  elected  hetman, 
in  sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-nine,  and  took  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  Tsar. 

Meanwhile  the  troubles  of  Little  Russia  revived  the  courage 
of  the  Poles.  They  succeeded  in  expelling  the  Swedes,  and 
refused  to  execute  the  treaty  of  Moscow.  The  war  began 
afresh,  and  the  Russians  were  unsuccessful.  The  very  ex- 
tremity of  their  misfortunes  seemed  to  have  bound  the  Poles 
together.  After  some  slight  successes  one  Russian  army 
under  Prince  Khovanski  was  defeated  at  Polonka  by  the 
vo'ievod  Tcharnetski,  the  conqueror  of  the  Swedes ;  in  the 
south  the  boyar  Sheremetief  had  made  an  agreement  with 
the  hetman  luri  Khmelnitski  to  march  by  two  different 
routes  against  Lemberg  and  there  reunite.  But  Khmelnitski 
was  unexpectedly  attacked  by  the  Poles  and  forced  to  capitu- 
late, and  the  whole  army  of  the  enemy,  including  twenty  thou- 
sand Tatars,  turned  its  attention  to  Sheremetief,  who  was 
completely  surrounded  in  his  camp  at  Tchudnovo.  Shereme- 
tief was  forced  to  surrender,  rather  by  hunger,  thirst,  and 
sickness  than  by  the  efforts  of  the  Polish  commander,  Stanislas 
Pototski.  On  the  twenty-first  of  September,  sixteen  hundred 
and  sixty-one,  he  was  allowed  to  lay  down  his  arms  on  the 
condition  of  paying  sixty  thousand  dollars,  evacuating  the 
Ukraina,  renouncing  the  Russian  right  to  protect  the  country, 
and  remaining  a  prisoner,  with  all  his  staff  officers,  until  Kief, 
Tchernigof,  and  Pereiaslavl  were  opened  to  the  Poles.  But 
hardly  had  the  Poles  approached  Kief,  when  the  commandant 
of  the  city,  Prince  Boratinski,  declared  that  he  was  not  bound 
by  Sheremetief's  promises,  and  would  suffer  no  Poles  to  enter. 
Thereupon  the  Tatars  sent  the  Russian  officers  to  the  Crimea, 
and  took  the  whole  army  as  prisoners  with  them.  So  the 
Tsar  lost  in  the  Ukraina  even  more  than  in  the  north,  where 
Vilna  and  Lithuania  were  taken  from  him. 

After  his  defeat  by  Liubomirski  near  Tchudnovo,  Khmelnitski 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  335 

had  deserted  the  Russian  cause  and  had  been  placed  in  com- 
mand of  Hadiatch  and  Mirgorod,  while  Somka  took  his  place 
as  hetman,  and  tried  to  drive  the  Poles  again  from  the  Ukraina. 
Somka,  with  the  aid  of  Romodanovski,  completely  defeated 
Khmelnitski  at  Kanief,  in  July,  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-two, 
and  the  latter  resigned  his  office  of  hetman  and  entered  a 
monastery  at  Korsun.  Teteria,  his  successor,  had  done  homage 
to  the  king ;  but  the  country  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Dnieper 
refused  to  recognize  him  as  hetman,  and  elected  Briukhovetski, 
who  was  devoted  to  Russia.  Ian  Kasimir  crossed  the  river, 
and  was  on  the  point  of  reconquering  the  whole  Ukraina ;  but 
having  been  repulsed  at  the  siege  of  Glukhof,  he  lost  all  his 
best  troops  through  hunger  and  cold  in  the  steppes  of  the 
desert.  The  two  empires  were  exhausted  by  a  war  which 
had  already  lasted  ten  years.  The  whole  of  Poland  had  been 
overrun  by  Swedes,  Russians,  and  Cossacks.  Russia  had  no 
longer  money  with  which  to  pay  its  army,  and  had  recourse 
to  a  forced  currency,  by  which  a  bronze  coinage  was  given  the 
fictitious  value  of  silver.  Everywhere  were  heard  bitter  com- 
plaints of  the  famine.  At  Moscow  a  riot  broke  out  against 
the  Miloslavskis,  the  kinsmen  of  the  Tsaritsa,  and  the  multi- 
tude marched  to  the  palace  of  Kolomenskoe  to  drag  them  out 
by  force.  The  soldiers  had  to  fire  on  the  rebels,  and  seven 
thousand  of  them  were  killed  or  taken. 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  neither  the  Poles  nor  the  Russians 
would  lay  down  arms  without  being  assured  the  possession  of 
all  that  they  had  conquered  with  so  many  sacrifices.  Poland, 
in  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-four,  was  attacked  by  two  new 
'  misfortunes,  —  the  revolt  of  Prince  Ltibomirski,  who,  having 
gained  the  ill-will  of  the  court,  and  of  the  queen  especially, 
was  declared  a  traitor,  with  confiscation  of  his  property ;  and 
the  death  of  Teteria,  whose  successor,  Doroshenko,  went  over 
to  the  Sultan,  and  by  so  doing  involved  the  government  in  a 
war  with  both  Turks  and  Tatars.  It  was  necessary  to  treat 
with  Russia,  and  a  truce  of  thirteen  years  and  six  months  was 

VOL.  i.  25 


386  HISTOEY  OP  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

concluded  in  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven  at  Andrusovo. 
Alexis  renounced  Lithuania,  but  kept  Smolensk  and  Kief  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  and  all  the  Little  Russian  left 
bank. 

The  treaty  with  Poland  did  not  give  peace  to  Little  Russia. 
Neither  the  Dnieper  Cossacks  nor  the  Don  Cossacks  could 
become  reconciled  to  the  obedience  and  regularity  essential  to 
a  modern  state.  The  more  Russia  became  civilized  and  cen- 
tralized, the  more  it  became  separated  from  the  men  of  the 
Steppe ;  the  further  the  frontier  of  this  civilized  Russia  ad- 
vanced to  the  south,  the  nearer  approached  the  inevitable 
conflict.  The  reign  of  Alexis,  troubled  at  first  by  the  revolts 
of  the  Muscovite  cities,  was  now  vexed  by  the  revolts  of  the 
Cossacks. 

The  hetman  Briukhovetski  was  a  devoted  adherent  of  Russia, 
but  he  was  surrounded  by  many  malcontents.  As  usual,  the 
people  had  not  gained  all  they  had  hoped  by  the  revolution  ; 
he  saw,  however,  in  the  absolute  authority  of  the  Tsar,  a  bul- 
wark against  the  Little  Russian  oligarchy  of  the  starshina  and 
the  polkovniki,  and  against  the  turbulence  of  the  Cossacks. 
He  said  to  the  latter,  "  God  has  delivered  us  from  you ;  you 
can  no  longer  pillage  and  devastate  our  houses."  The  Cos- 
sacks and  the  starshina,  or,  in  other  words,  the  military  and 
aristocratic  party,  were  still  more  displeased  to  see  the  Musco- 
vite voi'evodui  establish  themselves  in  the  towns.  The  Repub- 
lic of  the  Zaporoshtsui  already  feared  that  it  had  given  itself 
a  master.  Mefodi,  Metropolitan  of  Kief,  encouraged  the  resist- 
ance of  a  party  of  the  clergy  who  wished  to  remain  subject  to 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  not  to  be  transferred  to 
the  Patriarch  of  Moscow.  It  was  Mefodi  who  organized  the 
rebellion ;  he  made  advances  to  the  hetman,  who  opened  a 
negotiation  with  Doroshenko,  the  ataman  of  the  right  bank, 
who  promised  to  resign  his  office  and  to  recognize  as  chief  of 
Little  Russia  the  man  who  would  be  its  deliverer.  The  weak 
Briukhovetski  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded,  and  at  the 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOfi.  387 

Assembly  of  Hadiatch,  in  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-eight,  it 
was  decided  to  revolt  against  the  Tsar,  and  to  take  the  oath  to 
the  Sultan,  as  the  men  of  the  right  bank  had  already  done.  Two 
voievodui  and  one  hundred  and  twenty  Muscovites  were  put  to 
death.  A  short  time  after,  Briukhovetski  was  slain  by  order  of 
Doroshenko,  who  became  hetman  of  both  banks.  Two  parties 
divided  Little  Russia, — the  party  of  independence,  or  the  Polish 
and  Turkish  party,  and  the  party  favorable  to  Moscow ;  the 
latter  was  predominant  on  the  left  bank.  It  did  not  hesitate 
to  make  terms  with  the  Tsar,  and,  at  the  price  of  a  few  con- 
cessions, a  second  time  submitted  to  him  entirely.  Mnogo- 
greshnui,  the  new  hetman,  took  up  his  abode  at  Baturin. 

The  right  bank  had  no  reason  to  pride  itself  on  the  policy 
to  which  it  was  committed  by  Doroshenko.  It  became  the 
theatre  of  a  terrible  war  between  Turkey  and  Poland,  and  was 
cruelly  ravaged  by  Mahomet  the  Fourth  with  a  force  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  men.  The  Khan  of  the  Crimea 
and  Doroshenko  joined  with  the  Sultan,  and  Kamieniets, 
the  capital  of  the  southern  frontier,  was  captured.  In  sixteen 
hundred  and  seventy-two,  Ian  Kasimir's  weak  successor,  King 
Mikhail  Vishnevetski,  concluded  a  disgraceful  truce  with  Ma- 
homet, and  agreed  to  abandon  the  Cossacks  and  Kamieniets 
and  pay  an  annual  tribute.  But  Mikhail  died  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  and  Ian  Sobieski,  after  gaining  a  glorious  victory 
over  the  Turks  at  Khotsim,  was  recalled,  and  elected  king 
by  a  majority  over  his  rival,  the  tsarevitch  Feodor,  who  had 
been  nominated.  Meanwhile  the  left,  or  Muscovite,  bank  had 
less  to  suffer,  although  the  Sultan  claimed  it  equally  as  his  own 
possession,  but  the  inhabitants  had  to  fight  with  only  their  old 
enemies  the  Tatars. 

The  Cossacks  of  the  Don  at  this  period  were,  on  the  whole, 
tolerably  quiet ;  but  one  of  their  number,  Stephan  or  Stenko 
Razin,  overturned  all  Eastern  Russia.  The  immigration  of 
the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper,  expelled  from  their  native  land 
by  war,  had  created  a  great  famine  in  these  barren  plains  of 


388  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

the  Don.  Stenko  assembled  some  of  these  starved  adventurers, 
and  formed  a  scheme  for  the  capture  of  Azof;  but,  on  being 
hindered  by  the  starshina  of  the  Dontsui,  he  turned  towards 
the  East,  towards  the  Volga  and  the  laik,  now  called  the  Ural. 
His  reputation  was  wide-spread  ;  he  was  said  to  be  a  magi- 
cian, against  whom  neither  sabre,  balls,  nor  bullets  could  pre- 
vail, and  the  brigands  of  all  the  country  crowded  to  his  banner. 
He  swept  the  Caspian,  and  ravaged  the  shores  of  Persia.  The 
Russian  government,  powerless  to  crush  him,  offered  him  a 
pardon  if  he  would  surrender  his  guns  and  boats  stolen  from 
the  Crown.  He  accepted  the  offer;  but  his  exploits,  his 
wealth  acquired  by  pillage,  and  his  princely  liberality  created 
him  an  immense  party  among  the  lower  classes,  and  among 
the  Cossacks  and  even  the  streltsui  of  the  towns.  The  lands 
of  the  Volga  were  always  ready  for  a  social  revolution  ;  hence 
the  success  of  Razin,  and  later  of  Pugatchef.  There  brigands 
were  popular  and  respected ;  honest  merchants,  who  came  to 
the  Don  for  trading  purposes,  and  learned  that  Stenko  had 
begun  the  career  of  a  pirate,  did  not  hesitate  to  join  him. 

In  sixteen  hundred  and  seventy,  Stenko,  having  spent  all 
the  money  he  had  gained  by  pillage,  went  up  the  Don  with 
an  army  of  vagabonds,  and  thence  crossed  to  the  Volga.  All 
the  country  rose  on  the  approach  of  a  chief  already  so  famous. 
The  inhabitants  of  Tsaritsuin  opened  their  gates  to  him.  A 
flotilla  was  sent  against  him,  but  the  sailors  and  the  streltsui 
surrendered,  and  betrayed  to  him  their  commanders.  Astra- 
khan revolted,  and  delivered  up  its  two  voievodui,  one  of 
whom,  Prince  Prozorovski,  was  thrown  from  the  top  of  a  bell- 
tower,  and  his  son  was  barbarously  murdered.  Ascending 
the  Volga,  he  took  Saratof  and  Samara,  and  raised  the  country 
of  Nijni-Novgorod,  Tambof,  and  Penza.  Everywhere  in  the 
Russia  of  the  Volga  the  serfs  revolted  against  their  masters, 
—  the  Tatars,  Tchuvashi,  Mordva,  and  Tcheremisa  against 
the  domination  of  Russia.  It  was  a  fearful  revolution.  In 
sixteen  hundred  and  seventy-one  Stenko  Razin  was  defeated, 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.— FEODOR.  389 

near  Simbirsk,  by  Prince  luri  Boriatinski.  His  prestige  was 
lost ;  he  was  pursued  into  the  steppes,  arrested  on  the  Don, 
and  sent  to  Moscow,  where  he  was  executed  in  sixteen  hun- 
dred and  seventy-one. 

His  death  did  not  immediately  check  the  rebellion.  The 
brigands  still  continued  to  hold  the  country.  At  Astrakhan 
Vasili  Us  governed  despotically,  and  threw  the  archbishop 
losiph  from  a  belfry.  Finally,  however,  all  these  imitators 
of  Razin  were  killed  or  captured,  the  Volga  freed,  and  the 
Don  became  as  peaceful  as  the  Dnieper. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  REFORMS  OF  NIKON.  — THE  PRECURSORS 
OF  PETER  THE  GREAT. 

If  Alexis,  father  of  Peter  the  Great,  was  not  himself  a  re- 
former, his  whole  reign  was  a  preparation  for  reform.  Who 
can  tell  how  much  Peter  owed  to  the  example  of  his  father,  — 
and  of  his  mother  Natalia,  the  pupil  of  Matveef,  —  to  the  ideas 
of  Nikon,  Polotski,  and  Nashtchokin  ?  Nikon  was  the  son  of 
a  simple  peasant  of  the  government  of  Nijni-Novgorod.  His 
baptismal  name  was  Nikita ;  as  a  child  he  was  devoted  to  the 
reading  of  ecclesiastical  books,  and  he  spent  a  portion  of  his 
youth  with  a  worthy  monk  in  the  monastery  of  Saint  Makari, 
about  sixty  versts  from  Nijni-Novgorod.  But  his  father  ob- 
jected to  his  becoming  a  priest,  and  at  the  death  of  the  latter, 
by  the  advice  of  his  relatives,  he  married  and  went  to  Moscow. 
After  ten  years  of  secular  priesthood  the  husband  and  wife 
agreed  to  separate,  each  to  serve  God  in  religious  orders. 
Nikita  betook  himself  to  the  Anzerskoi  Hermitage,  on  an 
island  in  the  White  Sea.  Each  of  the  twelve  cells  was  sepa- 
rate on  the  shore,  and  the  recluse  held  no  conversation  with 
his  brethren,  but  spent  his  time  in  prayer  and  meditation,  or 
in  service  at  the  church,  which  was  situated  in  the  centre  of 
the  island.  Here  Nikita  assumed  the  name  of  Nikon.  After 
three  years  of  this  seclusion  he  was  chosen  abbot  of  the 
Kosheozerskoi  Monastuir,  and  after  another  three  years  he 


390  HISTOBY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

returned  to  Moscow,  where  he  became  known  to  the  Tsar,  and 
was  made  archimandrite  of  the  Novospasski  Monastuir;  he 
was  at  last,  in  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-eight,  nominated 
Metropolitan  of  Novgorod,  where  we  have  seen  him  quell  a 
sedition  at  the  peril  of  his  life.  The  Tsar  loved  and  admired 
him,  and  made  him  Patriarch,  and  allowed  him  to  take  the 
title  of  Veliki  Hosudar,  Chief  Noble  and  Sovereign,  once  borne 
by  Philaret.  A  man  who  had  raised  himself  to  such  a  height 
from  such  a  depth  was  not  capable  of  mastering  his  ambition. 
Proud  and  imperious,  he  made  himself  a  multitude  of  enemies 
among  the  clergy  and  the  nobles,  and  despised  them. 

Nikon  took  up  the  correction  of  the  holy  books  begun  by 
Dionisi  of  Troitsa.  A  number  of  gross  mistakes,  and  even 
interpolations,  had  slipped  into  the  Slavonic  manuscripts,  and 
thence  passed  into  print.  On  being  informed  of  these  mistakes 
by  some  Greek  prelates  who  had  come  to  Moscow,  Nikon 
assembled  a  council,  where  it  was  decided  that  the  printed 
books  must  be  corrected  according  to  the  ancient  Slavonic  or 
Greek  manuscripts.  Nikon  collected  these  texts  from  all  parts, 
and,  with  the  help  of  learned  ecclesiastics,  set  to  work  in  six- 
teen hundred  and  fifty-four.  This  attempt,  which  denotes  a 
truly  modern  and  scientific  spirit,  was  the  cause  of  a  schism. 
To  the  people,  and  to  a  large  party  of  the  clergy  and  monks, 
everything  in  the  holy  books,  even  including  the  mistakes  of 
the  copyists,  was  sacred.  Certain  altered  or  interpolated  texts 
had  in  their  turn  consecrated  usages  opposed  to  those  generally 
followed  by  the  Church.  The  sectaries  relying  on  these  texts 
forbade  the  beard  to  be  shaven  under  the  penalty  of  committing 
a  mortal  sin,  and  ordered  the  sign  of  the  cross  to  be  made  with 
two  fingers  and  not  with  three,  and  the  liturgy  with  seven 
wafers  and  not  with  five.  Fanatics  were  ready  to  die  sooner 
than  read  lisas  instead  of  Isus  for  the  name  of  Christ.  Besides 
those  whom  an  excessive  respect  for  ancient  texts  and  customs 
drove  into  schism,  we  must  reckon  the  genuine  heretics,  who 
adopted  falsified  or  apocryphal  renderings,  and  who,  after  hav- 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS  MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  391 

ing  been  long  hidden  and  ignored  in  the  bosom  of  the  ortho- 
dox Church,  were  all  at  once  unmasked.  Thus  the  reforms 
of  Nikon  brought  to  light  the  raskol,  or  heresy,  latent  in  the 
Russian  Church,  with  all  its  multiplicity  of  sects,  —  Old  Be- 
lievers, Drinkers  of  Milk,  Champions  of  the  Spirit,  Flagellants, 
Skoptsui,  or  voluntary  eunuchs,  and  many  others,  whose  origin 
may  be  traced  to  Alexandrine  Gnosticism,  Persian  Manichaeism, 
and  perhaps  even  to  Hindu  Pantheism. 

The  Tsar  energetically  supported  his  Patriarch.  He  dili- 
gently sought  out  the  religious  madmen,  and  the  wandering 
prophets  who  led  the  people  astray,  disgraced  the  men  and 
women  of  his  Court  who  persisted  in  crossing  themselves  with 
two  fingers,  imprisoned  rebellious  monks  and  ecclesiastics,  and 
hunted  down  assemblies  of  nonconformists.  One  of  Nikon's 
enemies  was  burnt  alive.  The  most  curious  episode  of  this 
religious  war  was  the  revolt  of  the  holy  monasteries  of  the 
White  Sea.  The  monks,  passionately  attached  to  their  ancient 
customs,  won  over  the  streltsui  and  the  men-at-arms  who  formed 
the  garrison  of  the  fortified  convent  of  Solovetski.  The  Archi- 
mandrite of  Moscow  was  sent  to  them  with  a  letter  from  the 
Tsar ;  but  they  replied  that  they  were  obedient  to  the  Great 
Lord  of  Russia  in  all  things,  but  they  would  not  accept  the 
revised  Scriptures.  An  army  had  to  be  sent  against  them  in 
sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-eight,  but  the  monastery  only  capitu- 
lated after  a  siege  of  eight  years.  It  was  then  taken  by  assault, 
and  the  rebels  hung. 

At  the  same  time  that  Alexis  enabled  Nikon  to  subdue  his 
religious  foes,  he  delivered  him  up  to  his  political  enemies. 
The  proud  and  imperious  character  of  the  Patriarch  had  at  last 
rendered  him  insupportable  to  the  Tsar.  It  was  a  reproduc- 
tion of  the  rivalry  of  the  Byzantine  Patriarch  Keroularios  and 
the  Emperor  Isaac  Comnenus  in  the  eleventh  century.  The 
courtiers  did  their  best  to  encourage  the  Tsar  in  his  coldness. 
Nikon,  instead  of  resisting  his  enemies,  would  not  lower  him- 
self by  employing  their  underhand  arts,  nor  did  he  take  any 


392  HISTORY  OF  EUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

pains  to  do  away  with  the  misunderstanding  between  himself 
and  Alexis.     On  the  contrary,  he  absented  himself  from  Mos- 
cow in  order  personally  to  superintend  the  building  of  his  three 
favorite  monasteries.     Meanwhile  his  enemies  took  advantage 
of  his  absence  to  insure  his  fall.     In  sixteen  hundred  and 
fifty-eight,  Teimuras,  Tsar  of  Georgia  or  Gruzia,  came  to  Mos- 
cow to  implore  the  help  of  Alexis  against  the  Turks  and  Per- 
sians.    He  was  received  with  great  courtesies,  and  Nikon 
expected  to  take  part.    But  the  Tsar's  officer  detailed  to  enter- 
tain Teimuras  insulted  Nikon  openly,  and  refused  satisfaction. 
Nikon  then  arranged  a  service  at  which  he  hoped  that  the 
Tsar  would  be  present,  and  that  an  understanding  would  be 
the  result.     But  Alexis  was  hindered  from  attending,  and  in 
his  place  came  Prince  Romadonovski  to  the  Uspienski  Sobor, 
and  reproached  him  for  his  arrogance  and  his  assumption  of 
the  title  of  Veliki  Hosudar.     This   title  Nikon   had  never 
claimed,  and  his  patience  came  to  an  end  at  this  public  insult. 
After  the  mass  and  the  sermon  he  turned  to  the  people  and 
humbly  apologized  for  his  faults,  renounced  his  patriarchate, 
and  amid  the  tears  of  the  people  he  solemnly  placed  his  pon- 
tifical insignia  on  the  altar,  and  retired  to  a  convent  which  he 
had  founded  near  Moscow,  and  called  New  Jerusalem.     This 
was  to  relinquish  the  field  of  battle  to  his  adversaries.     He 
expected  that  the  Tsar  would  beseech  him  to  resume  his  office, 
but  the  Tsar  did  not  trouble  himself  about  his  old  favorite. 
His  voluntary  exile  lasted  eight  years,  from  sixteen  hundred 
and  fifty-eight  until  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-six,  when  a 
council  was  assembled  on  the  occasion  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Patriarchs  of  Antioch  and  Alexandria  at  Moscow.    The  council 
was  held  in  the  Tsar's  palace  in  the  Kreml,  and  was  composed 
of  two  Patriarchs,  four  Russian  and  six  Greek  Metropolitans, 
six  Russian  archbishops,  the  Archbishops  of  Mount  Siniai  and 
Valakhia,  innumerable  bishops,  archimandrites,  and  priests  of 
all  ranks.     Nikon  was  three  times  examined  by  the  council, 
which  approved  of  his  reforms  and  his  corrections  of  the  Sacred 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOK.  393 

Books ;  but  for  his  voluntary  desertion  of  the  patriarchate,  his 
unwillingness  to  have  a  successor  appointed,  his  audacious 
attacks  on  the  Tsar  and  the  bishops,  his  avarice,  his  arrogance, 
and  the  abuse  of  his  power  over  the  inferior  clergy,  he  was 
condemned  to  be  deprived  of  his  dignities  and  to  be  impris- 
oned for  life.  He  was  removed  from  the  council  to  the  police 
court  by  an  insulting  throng  of  officers,  and  on  the  next  day 
he  was  sent  to  the  Hermitage  of  Ferapontof,  about  thirty  versts 
from  the  White  Lake.  At  first  he  was  subjected  to  harsh 
treatment,  but  gradually  his  imprisonment  was  lightened,  and 
the  Tsar  Feodor  finally  allowed  him  to  return  to  his  favorite 
monastery  Voskresenski,  near  Moscow,  where  he  died  on  the 
seventeenth  of  August,  sixteen  hundred  and  eighty-one,  and 
was  buried  with  all  the  honors  of  a  patriarch. 

By  the  side  of  Nikon,  among  the  reformers,  we  must  men- 
tion Simeon  Polotski,  tutor  of  the  sons  of  Alexis,  who,  in  six- 
teen hundred  and  sixty-eight,  published  against  the  raskolniki, 
the  "Rod  of  Government";  wrote  light  verses,  panegyrics, 
sermons,  dramatic  compositions  the  subjects  of  which  were 
drawn  from  the  Scriptures,  maxims,  and  examples  translated 
from  ancient  and  modern  writers  and  put  into  verse  in  order 
to  attract  the  reader.  In  one  of  his  poems  he  called  to  the 
Tsar's  mind  the  example  of  a  French  king.  "  There  was 
once,"  he  wrote,  "  a  King  of  France  called  Francis  the  First. 
As  he  loved  literature  and  science,  though  his  ancestors  did 
not  love  them,  and  lived  in  ignorance  like  barbarians,  the  sons 
of  illustrious  families  sought  instruction,  in  order  to  please  the 
monarch.  Thus  knowledge  spread  through  the  country,  for 
it  is  the  custom  of  subjects  to  imitate  the  prince ;  all  love  what 
he  loves.  Happy  is  the  kingdom  whose  king  gives  a  good 
example  to  all !  "  Simeon  was  a  White  Russian  ;  others,  like 
the  monks  Slavinetski  and  Satanovski,  who  were  commissioned 
by  Nikon  with  the  translation  of  foreign  books,  were  natives  of 
Little  Russia,  of  Kief  the  learned.  These  two  western  divis- 
ions of  Russia  served  as  a  link  between  Muscovy  and  Europe. 


394  HISTOEY  OF  KUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

Two  writers  of  this  epoch  merit  special  mention.  Gregory 
Kotoshikhin,  imder-secretary  of  the  Prikaz  of  Embassies,  was 
obliged,  in  consequence  of  a  quarrel  with  the  voievod  Dolgo- 
ruki,  to  fly  first  into  Poland  and  then  into  Sweden,  where  he 
wrote  a  curious  treatise,  called  "  Russia  under  the  Reign  of 
Alexis  Mikhailovitch,"  which  appeared  about  sixteen  hundred 
and  sixty-six.  He  does  not  concern  himself  either  with  the 
clergy  or  the  inferior  classes,  but  gives  a  frightful  picture  of 
the  ignorance,  sensuality,  and  brutality  of  the  boyars  and 
nobles.  So  graphic  is  it  that,  as  Polevoi  remarks,  we  are 
forced  involuntarily  to  ask,  "  In  what  state  could  the  lower 
orders  have  been  ?  "  He  speaks  with  horror  and  disgust  of 
the  administration  of  justice,  compares  foreign  institutions  with 
those  of  his  own  country  to  the  advantage  of  the  former,  and 
regrets  that  his  compatriots  did  not  send  their  sons  to  be 
educated  abroad. 

luri  Krijanitch,  a  Servian  by  birth  and  a  Catholic  priest, 
was  one  of  those  learned  Slavs  who  now  came  into  Russia  to 
seek  employment  for  their  talents.  He  had  proposed  to  him- 
self three  aims  in  coming  to  Moscow :  First,  to  elevate  the 
Slavonic  tongue  by  compiling  a  grammar  and  a  lexicon,  so 
that  the  Slavs  might  learn  to  speak  and  write  correctly ;  and 
to  place  a  larger  number  of  words  and  phrases  at  their  dis- 
posal, so  that  they  might  be  able  to  express  all  the  thoughts 
common  to  the  human  mind,  and  also  political  and  general 
ideas.  Secondly,  to  write  the  history  of  the  Slavs,  and  to 
refute  the  falsehoods  and  calumnies  of  the  Germans.  And 
lastly,  to  unmask  the  tricks  and  sophisms  made  use  of  by 
foreign  nations  to  deceive  the  Slavs.  In  his  work  entitled 
"  The  Russian  Empire  in  the  middle  of  the  Seventeenth  Cen- 
tury," dedicated  to  Alexis  Mikhailovitch,  and  lately  republished 
by  M.  Bezsonof,  he  touches  on  all  points  of  manners  and  cus- 
toms, politics,  and  political  economy.  Like  Kotoshikhin,  he 
attacks  ignorance  and  barbarism,  and  advocates  instruction, 
study,  and  civilization  as  being  the  only  remedies  for  the 
misfortunes  of  Russia. 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS   MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  395 

Krijanitch  is  the  first  of  the  Slavophiles,  or  the  Pan-Slavists, 
as  they  are  at  present  called.  He  appeals  to  all  the  Slav  na- 
tions,—  "  Boristhenites,  or  Little  Russians,  Poles,  Lithuanians, 
and  Serbs."  He  advises  the  Russians  to  mistrust  Germans 
and  Greeks  alike.  It  was  probably  his  philippics  against  the 
Greek  clergy  established  in  Russia  that  caused  him  in  sixteen 
hundred  and  sixty  to  be  exiled  to  Tobolsk. 

Aphanasi  Ordin-Nashtchokin,  son  of  a  gentleman  of  Pskof, 
had  long  been  known  as  a  brave  voi'evod,  and  as  a  man  par- 
ticularly skilled  in  conducting  diplomatic  conferences  ;  but  he 
so  distinguished  himself  in  the  successful  negotiations  for  the 
Peace  of  Andrusovo,  which  gave  Kief  and  Smolensk  to  Russia, 
that  he  was  summoned  to  take  part  in  the  councils  of  the  Tsar. 
He  applied  his  activity  to  all  branches  of  the  administration  : 
to  the  army,  which  was  in  need  of  reform  ;  to  commerce,  which 
needed  to  be  freed  from  the  interference  of  the  vo'ievodui ;  to 
diplomacy,  for  which  men  skilled  in  languages,  representatives 
worthy  of  the  Court  of  Russia,  had  to  be  found.  His  object 
was  to  make  Muscovy  the  centre  of  Asiatic  and  European 
trade ;  he  made  an  agreement  with  an  Armenian  Company, 
in  accordance  with  which  all  Persian  silks  obtained  by  this 
company  should  be  sent  to  Russia ;  he  originated  the  idea  of 
building  fleets  on  the  Caspian,  and  on  the  Oka  constructed 
the  first  Russian  vessel.  He  had  extracts  from  foreign  news- 
letters regularly  translated  for  the  enlightenment  of  the  sover- 
eign, and  thus  founded,  though  for  the  Tsar's  benefit  alone, 
the  Russian  press. 

As  he  had  necessarily  to  praise  the  usages  of  foreign  coun- 
tries, and  to  find  fault  with  those  of  Russia,  Nashtchokin  could 
not  but  make  himself  many  enemies.  His  morality  was  equal 
to  his  talent:  incorruptible,  indefatigable, and  self-controlled,  he 
was  the  first  great  European  that  Russia  had  produced.  But 
while  praising  Europe  he  still  remained  a  Russian.  In  his 
old  age  he  became  a  monk. 

When  Nashtchokin,  by  the  machinations  of  his  enemies,  lost 


396  HISTOKY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

the  Tsar's  favor  and  was  obliged  to  leave  his  post,  the  boyar 
Matveef,  a  familiar  friend  of  Alexis,  was  appointed  his  succes- 
sor. One  day,  when  the  Tsar  was  dining  with  Matveef,  he 
noticed  a  young  girl  who  was  serving  at  table,  and  who  pleased 
him  by  her  modest  and  intelligent  air.  This  was  a  motherless 
girl,  Natalia  Naruishkin,  to  whom  her  uncle  Matveef  had  been 
a  second  father.  "  I  have  found  a  husband  for  her,"  said  the 
Tsar  to  Matveef  some  days  after.  This  husband  was  the  Tsar 
himself.  The  marriage  drew  closer  still  the  ties  that  bound 
him  to  Matveef.  But  the  latter  was,  like  Nashtchokin,  full  of 
European  ideas.  His  house  was  furnished  and  ornamented 
according  to  Western  notions.  His  chosen  guests  did  not 
give  themselves  up  to  the  orgies  authorized  by  national  cus- 
tom ;  they  behaved  as  courteously  as  if  they  were  in  a  French 
salon.  His  Scotch  wife,  a  Hamilton  by  birth,  was  the  only 
lady  of  the  Court  who  did  not  paint  herself,  and,  instead  of 
keeping  herself  secluded  in  her  apartments,  took  part  in  the 
conversation  of  men.  We  may  conceive  the  influence  of  the 
boyar  and  his  wife  on  their  adopted  daughter ;  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  Natalia  was  the  first  Russian  princess  who 
drew  back  the  curtains  of  her  litter,  and  allowed  her  face  to 
be  seen  by  her  subjects.  Matveef  protected  foreign  artists,  — 
"  masters  in  perspective  writings,"  as  they  were  called.  In 
the  German  Slobod  of  Moscow  he  established  a  sort  of  dra- 
matic academy,  where  twenty-five  merchants'  sons  learned  to 
act  comedies.  The  Tsar  acquired  a  taste  for  theatrical  enter- 
tainments. Likatchof,  his  envoy  at  the  Court  of  Florence, 
wrote  to  his  sovereign  enthusiastic  letters  full  of  the  marvels 
which  he  had  seen  at  the  opera,  —  of  palaces  which  appeared 
and  disappeared,  of  a  sea  that  rose  and  fell  and  was  filled  with 
fish,  of  men  who  rode  on  monsters  of  the  deep,  or  pursued 
each  other  into  the  clouds.  Moscow  undertook  to  rival  Flor- 
ence. In  a  wooden  theatre,  ballets  and  dramas,  adapted  from 
the  Bible,  were  represented  before  the  Tsar  :  "  Joseph  sold  by 
his  Brethren/'  "The  Prodigal  Son,"  and  a  drama  of  "  Esther," 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS  MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  397 

which  preceded  that  of  Racine  by  seventeen  years.  At  Mos- 
cow, as  at  Saint  Cyr,  the  piece  gave  scope  to  many  allusions. 
Here  Esther  was  Natalia  Naruishkiii ;  Mordecai  was  Matveef, 
the  protector  of  her  youth ;  and  the  vremianshtchik  Haman, 
who  was  hung  at  the  petition  of  Queen  Esther,  was,  no  doubt, 
Khitrovo,  the  former  favorite.  These  pieces  were  enlivened 
by  somewhat  rough  pleasantries.  In  "  Holofernes,"  when 
Judith  has  cut  off  the  head  of  the  Assyrian  voievod,  the  ser- 
vant cries,  "  Here  is  a  poor  man  who  will  be  much  astonished, 
on  awaking,  to  find  his  head  carried  away  !  " 

In  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-five,  Alexis  sent  Gerasim 
Dokturof  to  notify  the  King  of  England,  Charles  the  First, 
of  his  accession.  The  Russian  envoy  arrived  in  England  in 
the  midst  of  the  Revolution.  Being  received  at  Gravesend 
with  great  honors  and  the  firing  of  guns  by  the  company  of 
merchants  that  traded  with  Russia,  he  at  once  inquired  where 
the  king  was.  They  replied,  they  did  not  know  exactly 
where  he  was,  because  for  three  or  four  years  there  had  been 
a  great  civil  war,  and  instead  of  the  king  they  had  now  the 
Parliament,  composed  of  deputies  from  all  the  orders,  who 
governed  London  as  well  as  the  kingdoms  of  England  and 
Scotland. 

But  the  Russian  envoy  recognized  the  king  only,  and  per- 
sisted, according  to  the  text  of  his  instructions,  in  trying  to 
deliver  his  letters  of  credit  to  the  king  himself.  "  Hast  thou 
a  letter  from  thy  sovereign,  and  a  mission  to  the  Parliament  ?" 
they  asked  him.  He  replied,  "  I  have  neither  a  letter  nor  a 
mission  to  the  Parliament.  Let  the  Parliament  send  me  im- 
mediately before  the  king,  and  give  me  an  escort,  carriages, 
and  provisions.  Let  the  Parliament  present  me  to  him,  — 
it  is  to  him  that  I  will  speak."  His  demand  was  naturally 
refused,  and  he  wished  instantly  to  leave  for  Holland ;  but  this 
was  not  allowed. 

The  following  year,  Charles  the  First  was  brought  a  prisoner 
into  London.  Dokturof  insisted  on  being  presented  to  him. 


398  HISTORY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

His  request  was  ill-timed.  "  You  cannot  be  brought  before 
him,"  they  said  to  him  ;  "  he  no  longer  governs  anything." 

Dokturof  was  summoned  before  the  House  of  Lords  on  the 
thirteenth  of  June.  At  his  entrance  all  the  "  boyars  "  took 
off  their  hats,  and  Lord  Manchester,  the  "  chief  boyar,"  rose. 
Then  Dokturof,  to  the  general  consternation,  made  the  follow- 
ing speech :  "  I  am  sent  by  my  sovereign  to  your  king,  Charles, 
King  of  England.  I  have  been  sent  as  a  courier  to  negotiate 
important  affairs  of  state,  which  offer  great  advantages  to  both 
sovereigns  and  to  all  Christendom,  and  may  help  to  maintain 
peace  and  concord.  It  is  the  thirteenth  of  June,  and,  since  I 
arrived  in  London  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  November  last,  I  have 
never  ceased  to  show  you  the  letter  of  the  Tsar,  and  to  beg  you 
to  allow  me  to  go  before  the  king.  You  have  kept  me  in 
London  without  permitting  me  either  to  have  an  interview 
with  the  king  or  to  return  to  the  Tsar ;  and  yet  in  all  the 
neighboring  countries  the  route  is  free  to  all  ambassadors, 
envoys,  and  couriers  of  the  Tsar." 

Manchester  replied  that  they  would  explain  to  the  Tsar  by 
letter  their  reasons  for  acting  thus.  They  gave  him  a  chair, 
and  the  English  "  boyars  "  likewise  seated  themselves  ;  and 
he  began  to  look  about  the  House,  of  which  he  gives  a  minute 
description  in  his  report.  He  was  then  conducted  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  the  dignitaries  came  to  meet  him, 
preceded  by  the  royal  sceptre.  He  renewed  his  declarations, 
and  then  retired  ceremoniously.  In  June,  sixteen  hundred 
and  forty-six,  he  left  England,  much  discontented.  Alexis 
could  no  more  understand  the  English  Revolution  than  his 
envoy.  He  maintained,  like  Catherine  the  Second,  the  cause 
of  kings  against  the  liberty  of  the  subjects.  In  May,  sixteen 
hundred  and  forty-seven,  he  received  at  Moscow  Nawtingall, 
envoy  of  Charles  the  Eirst,  who  denounced  the  captivity  of  the 
king,  and  said  Charles  would  see  with  pleasure  the  English 
Company  deprived  of  its  privileges,  and  every  one  allowed  to 
trade  freely  with  Russia.  Alexis  listened  to  his  request,  and 


1645-1682.]     ALEXIS  MIKHAlLOVITCH.  —  FEODOR.  399 

granted  him,  as  aid  to  the  king,  thirty  thousand  tchetvertui,  or 
quarters,  of  corn,  out  of  the  three  hundred  thousand  that  were 
asked  of  him.  But  the  English  merchants  settled  in  Russia 
accused  Nawtingall  of  imposture,  saying  that  the  king's  letter 
was  apocryphal,  and  that  the  dog  he  had  brought  as  a  present 
to  Alexis  had  never  been  bought  by  Charles  the  First.  Naw- 
tingall was  expelled  in  disgrace,  and  avenged  himself  by 
accusing  his  compatriots  of  a  project  of  attacking  Arkhangel, 
and  of  pillaging  the  Russian  merchants.  His  honors  as  am- 
bassador were  then  given  back  to  him,  but  he  quitted  Russia. 

When  Alexis  heard  of  the  execution  of  Charles  the  First, 
he  published  the  ukas  of  June,  sixteen  hundred  and  forty-nine, 
which,  as  a  punishment  to  the  regicides,  forbade  the  English 
merchants  to  live  in  the  cities  of  the  interior,  and  confined 
them  to  Arkhangel.  The  Tsar  furnished  help  in  money  and 
corn  to  Charles,  Prince  of  Wales,  who  in  sixteen  hundred  and 
sixty  became  Charles  the  Second,  and  resumed  relations  with 
him  when  he  ascended  the  throne  of  the  Stuarts. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war  with  Poland  it  occurred  to 
Alexis  to  notify  the  fact  to  the  sovereigns  of  the  West.  In 
sixteen  hundred  and  fifty-three  he  sent  to  Louis  the  Four- 
teenth a  certain  Matchekin,  who  was  also  presented  to  Anne 
of  Austria.  In  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-eight,  just  after  the 
Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  Peter  Potemkin  was  accredited  first 
to  the  Court  of  Spain  and  then  to  the  Court  of  France.  The 
object  of  the  embassy  was  to  induce  Louis  the  Fourteenth 
to  enter  into  regular  relations  with  Russia,  and  to  send 
French  vessels  to  Arkhangel.  Potemkin  had  conferences  with 
Colbert  and  the  six  merchant  guilds  of  Paris.  But  the  results 
of  this  embassy  were  hardly  greater  than  those  of  the  preced- 
ing one. 

REIGN  OF  FEODOR  ALEXIEVITCH. 

On  the  death  of  Alexis,  in  January,  sixteen  hundred  and 
seventy-six,  his  eldest  son  Feodor  succeeded  to  the  crown. 


400  HISTOEY  OF  RUSSIA.  [CHAP.  XXI. 

The  Miloslavskis,  Feeder's  maternal  relatives,  profited  by  his 
accession  to  ruin  their  enemy  Matveef,  who  was  accused  of 
magic,  deprived  of  his  property  and  his  title  of  boyar,  and 
banished  to  Pustozersk.  In  this  reign  the  Little  Russian 
question  received  a  solution.  The  hetman  Samoilovitch  and 
Prince  Romodanovski  defeated  Doroshenko,  and  obliged  him 
to  resign  the  office  of  ataman.  They  then  had  to  fight  the 
Turks  and  Tatars,  who  twice  invaded  the  Ukraina  and  ad- 
vanced to  Tchigirin. 

The  country,  according  to  a  contemporary  account,  was  cov- 
ered with  ruined  towns  and  castles,  and  heaps  of  human  bones 
that  whitened  in  the  sun.  Finally,  the  Sultan  concluded  at 
Bakhtchi-Serai  a  truce  of  twenty  years,  which  ceded  to  Russia 
Zaporogia  and  the  Ukraina.  In  sixteen  hundred  and  eighty- 
one  Feodor  sent  a  new  embassy  to  Louis  the  Fourteenth  ;  his 
envoy  being  the  son  of  the  old  Poternkin,  who  managed,  ac- 
cording to  the  diplomatic  historian  Flassans,  to  give  by  his 
own  wisdom  and  learning  a  favorable  idea  of  the  nation  which 
he  represented. 

In  order  to  defend  the  orthodox  Church  against  the  heresies 
of  the  West,  and  to  connect  it  more  closely  with  the  Eastern 
Church,  Feodor  founded  the  Slavo-Grseco-Latin  Academy  of 
Moscow.  Greek  and  Latin,  Christian  philosophy  and  the- 
ology, were  taught  there.  The  brothers  Likhoudi  were  brought 
from  Greece  to  be  professors  there.  This  school,  although 
ecclesiastical,  was  an  advance  on  all  other  establishments  of 
the  kind  in  Russia,  and  produced  some  brilliant  pupils. 
Among  them  we  may  mention  the  mathematician  Magnitski 
under  Peter  the  Great,  and  the  historian  Bantuish-Kamenski 
and  the  Metropolitan  Plato  under  Catherine  the  Second.  The 
school  was  afterwards  transferred  to  the  Monastery  of  Tro'itsa. 

END   OF   VOLUME   FIRST. 


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